Jean Brenchley

Jean E. Brenchley (March 6, 1944 – July 9, 2019) was an American microbiologist and a professor at the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) and Purdue University.

Jean Brenchley
Jean Brenchley as a high school student, from a 1962 newspaper.
Born
Jean Elnora Brenchley

March 6, 1944
Towanda, Pennsylvania
DiedJuly 9, 2019
State College, Pennsylvania
NationalityAmerican
OccupationMicrobiologist

Early life

Jean Elnora Brenchley was born in Towanda, Pennsylvania, the daughter of J. Edward Brenchley and Elizabeth Jefferson Brenchley. "My love of microorganisms started while growing up on a small dairy farm in Pennsylvania" she recalled later in life.[1] As a high school student in Canton, Pennsylvania,[2] Brenchley won a regional science fair competition, with a project about the way Myxomycetes slime mold reacts to light.[3]

Brenchley earned a bachelor's degree in biology at Mansfield University in 1965.[4] She pursued further studies in marine microbiology at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, where she earned her master's degree in 1967.[5] She completed doctoral work at the University of California, Davis in 1970,[6] with a dissertation titled "An Investigation of Cold-Sensitive Mutants of Salmonella Typhimurium LT2 with Altered Macromolecular Synthesis."[7]

Career

After a one-year post-doctoral appointment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brenchley joined the microbiology department at Penn State in 1971 as an assistant professor.[8] In 1977 she moved to Purdue University, where she became a full professor in 1979. For four years, beginning in 1981, she worked in industrial research. She returned to academia in 1984, as founding Director of the Penn State Biotechnology Institute. She built the institute's programming and did fundraising to create laboratories. She retired from the institute in 1990, but continued teaching at Penn State. She retired as Professor Emerita in 2011.[6]

Brenchley's research involved the genetics of psychrophilic microbes, including microbes retrieved from Antarctic and Greenland ice core samples.[9][10] Her work had practical industrial applications (for example, for food safety at low temperatures), but was also considered useful in theories about extraterrestrial life.[11]

In 1986 Brenchley was elected president of the American Society for Microbiology. She was recipient of the Waksman Award for Outstanding Contributions in Microbiology in 1985, from the Theobald Smith Society, and of American Society for Microbiology's Alice Evans Award in 1996, for her work encouraging women in the field.[12] She was a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Society for Industrial Microbiology.[6]

The Brenchley Endowment, established by Brenchley in her last year, supports programming on WPSU-FM, the public radio station at Penn State.[13]

Personal life

Brenchley married author Bernard Asbell in 1990.[14] She was widowed when Asbell died in 2011.[15] She died from cancer in 2019, aged 75 years, in State College, Pennsylvania. Some of her papers and awards are in the collection of the Bradford County Historical Society Museum.[6] The Jean Brenchley Fund, established in her memory at the Centre Foundation, supports environmental and educational projects in central Pennsylvania,[16] including the Women Anglers Support Fund, because she was active in the Central Pennsylvania Women Anglers.[17]

References
  1. Brenchley, Jean (2000-01-01). "Putting Microorganisms to Work". Many Faces, Many Microbes: 219–225. doi:10.1128/9781555818128.ch28. ISBN 9781555811907.
  2. "Receive BPW Award". The Canton Independent-Sentinel. 1962-03-15. p. 1. Retrieved 2020-01-08 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. "Jean Brenchley, Canton, First in Mansfield SC Science Fair". The Canton Independent-Sentinel. 1962-03-29. p. 1. Retrieved 2020-01-08 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Jean Brenchley Earns PTA Award". The Canton Independent-Sentinel. 1962-08-09. p. 1. Retrieved 2020-01-08 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. "Jean Brenchley Candidate for Doctoral Degree". The Canton Independent-Sentinel. 1969-04-10. p. 1. Retrieved 2020-01-08 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "Obituary for Jean E. Brenchley", Koch Funeral Home.
  7. Brenchley, Jean Elnora. "An Investigation of Cold-Sensitive Mutants of Salmonella Typhimurium LT2 with Altered Macromolecular Synthesis" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Davis, 1970). ProQuest document ID 302520025.
  8. "Dr. Jean Brenchley Joins Faculty at Penn State". The Canton Independent-Sentinel. 1971-07-15. p. 1. Retrieved 2020-01-08 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. "Jean Brenchley, PhD". Kerafast. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  10. Miteva, Vanya I.; Brenchley, Jean E. (December 2005). "Detection and Isolation of Ultrasmall Microorganisms from a 120,000-Year-Old Greenland Glacier Ice Core". Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 71 (12): 7806–7818. doi:10.1128/AEM.71.12.7806-7818.2005. ISSN 0099-2240. PMC 1317422. PMID 16332755.
  11. "Jean E. Brenchley". NASA Astrobiology Institute.
  12. "In Memoriam: Brenchley, Jean E." American Society for Microbiology. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  13. "Brenchley endowment will support key programming for WPSU-FM | Penn State University". Penn State News. January 6, 2020. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  14. "Jean Brenchley Wed to Bernard Asbell". The New York Times. 1990-07-22. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  15. Molotsky, Irvin (February 9, 2001). "Bernard Asbell, 77, Professor, Prolific Writer and Folk Singer". The New York Times. p. C11 – via ProQuest.
  16. "Jean Brenchley Fund". Centre Foundation. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  17. "Spring Creek Chapter Women Anglers". Spring Creek Chapter of Trout Unlimited. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
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