Remembering...

George Banwart

Professor Emeritus, Microbiology, died January 15, 2000. He was born in Algona, Iowa in 1926. Banwart's research area was food microbiology. He received his Ph.D. from Iowa State University in 1955, and joined the Department of Microbiology in 1969. He retired in 1987. He was the author of several articles, published in academic, technical and trade journals, was active in professional societies and gave frequent presentations at professional meetings. Banwart is known for developing rapid methods for testing foods for Salmonella; a special flask for this purpose is called the Banwart flask. Banwart also devised a system to eliminate Salmonella from dried albumen which was used by egg drying plants throughout the world.

Willard Myser

Professor Emeritus, Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology (formerly Zoology) died September 15, 2000. Myser was born in 1922 in Cuyahoga Falls, OH. He received his Ph.D. from Ohio State in 1952 and did postdoctoral research at Argonne National Laboratory. He retired from Ohio State in 1985. Myser's research focused on the effects of ultraviolet radiation and X-rays on insects such as the honeybee and waxmoth and on insect and mammalian cell lines in culture. He was among the first to conduct experiments on radiation damage and repair of DNA in cultures of these cells. His work was published in several well-known journals. Myser was also a highly regarded teacher. In the early 1970's, he helped develop, then coordinate, a visionary program in audio tutorial teaching of introductory zoology and biology.

Robert Swanton Platt, Jr.

Assistant Professor Emeritus, Plant Biology, died March 17, 2000. Platt received his Ph.D. from Harvard, was a Fulbright Scholar in the Netherlands, then joined the faculty at Ohio State where he taught for 36 years. Platt was a member of several professional societies and had a particular interest in wetlands conservation. He served on the Columbus Parks Department's Hoover Nature Commission. An active member of the Audubon Society, he participated in their annual Christmas bird counts.

Russell Skavaril

Professor Emeritus, Molecular Genetics, died November 30, 2000. Skavaril was born December 6, 1936 in Omaha, Nebraska. He received his B.A. from the University of Omaha in 1958 and his Ph.D. from Ohio State in 1964. He retired in 1992. Skavaril was interested in statistics, biometrics and computer simulated genetics. He was particularly interested in the application of statistics to biology and the role of computers in teaching. He was the author of several papers. He served as Acting Chair of the Genetics Department (now Molecular Genetics) and Head of the General Biology Section (now the Introductory Biology Program).