In Memoriam
Emanuel Epstein
Professor of Plant Nutrition, Emeritus
UC Davis
1916-2022
Emanuel Epstein received a B.S. and a M.S. in Horticulture from UC Davis in 1940 and 1941, respectively, and a Ph.D. in Plant Physiology from UC Berkeley in 1950. Emanuel met Hazel Margaret Leask, “Peggy,” at student housing in Berkeley and folk dancing at the International House, and she became his beloved wife of 78 years until her death in 2020. The Epsteins returned to Davis in 1958 with Emanuel appointed a faculty member in the Department of Plant Nutrition. He was promoted to a Professor of Plant Nutrition in 1965 and also a Professor of Botany in 1974. His official retirement in 1987 failed to diminish his passion for science, and he continued to conduct experiments, publish articles, attend seminars and scientific meetings, and review and edit manuscripts for thirty-five more years.
Dr. Epstein authored more than 144 scientific articles as well as two editions of the standard textbook on plant mineral nutrition. Dr. Epstein’s research focused on the movement of nutrient ions from soils into plant roots and then through plants. He was the first to apply enzyme kinetics to ion transport and characterize high- and low-affinity nutrient transport mechanisms. He established the role of calcium in plant ion-selectivity and the genetic basis of ion transport. He first demonstrated sodium/proton exchange at vacuolar membranes. He conducted the first feasibility study of seawater-based crop production and introduced salt tolerance from an exotic wild relative species into a salt-sensitive domestic one. His most recent studies documented the importance of the element silicon to many plant processes, concluding that “the evidence is overwhelming that silicon should be included among the elements having a major bearing on plant life.”
Dr. Epstein did not distinguish between basic and applied sciences. He exploited the most appropriate techniques available and designed his experiments to advance not only a fundamental understanding of plant functions, but also agricultural practices for feeding the world. “We cannot live, there can be no future, unless we husband the integrity of the ultimate non-living resources of life—our life support system of soil, air, water and mineral matter.” He periodically commented that the human population, which was about 1.5 billion when he was born, had increased more than five-fold during his lifetime.
Dr. Epstein was a Guggenheim Fellow and twice a Senior Fulbright Research Fellow. He was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences of the United States in 1978. In 1999, he received the Award of Distinction from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, UC Davis.
Dr. Epstein’s laboratory group was always relatively small, yet he served as a mentor for many generations of plant scientists. Having escaped the rise of National Socialism in Germany as a teenager, he emigrated to a farm in Palestine, received post-secondary education in California, and served in the United States military. These multicultural and multi-language experiences perhaps explain Dr. Epstein’s proficiency in communicating with diverse audiences. He was in demand as a keynote speaker for many national and international conferences on topics related to plant nutrition. He was generous with his time and resources that he shared with associates, no matter what their backgrounds.
Dr. Epstein was fully engaged with current events throughout his life, Every so often, some inappropriate human behavior would goad Dr. Epstein to issue a “Manny-festo,” a well-reasoned letter to the editor that attempted to bring the issue into an appropriate perspective. He promoted the use of scientific method to solve human problems, but realized that “Like life itself, science does not progress in a neat and orderly manner. An idea may come, only to be squelched by the very first experiment meant to test it; a patently poor paper may provide the impetus to clarify the issue through new experiments; a casual question from a student or colleague may spark a flash of insight. Ambition and personal animosities and biases are part of the scene, and occasionally, sheer malice…If our minds were as orderly, as neat, as methodical as our papers make them out to be, no creative science would get done. In short, real science, like real life, is often messy.”
Fortunately, Emanuel Epstein lived a long and productive life. With hindsight, the clarity of scientific progress that he achieved in a lifetime supersedes any messiness that might have occurred in real-time. We can only hope to fulfill the departing sendoff that Dr. Epstein always cheerfully bellowed, “Carry on!”
Wendy Silk
Will Horwath
Arnold Bloom
Patrick Brown
Dr. Epstein authored more than 144 scientific articles as well as two editions of the standard textbook on plant mineral nutrition. Dr. Epstein’s research focused on the movement of nutrient ions from soils into plant roots and then through plants. He was the first to apply enzyme kinetics to ion transport and characterize high- and low-affinity nutrient transport mechanisms. He established the role of calcium in plant ion-selectivity and the genetic basis of ion transport. He first demonstrated sodium/proton exchange at vacuolar membranes. He conducted the first feasibility study of seawater-based crop production and introduced salt tolerance from an exotic wild relative species into a salt-sensitive domestic one. His most recent studies documented the importance of the element silicon to many plant processes, concluding that “the evidence is overwhelming that silicon should be included among the elements having a major bearing on plant life.”
Dr. Epstein did not distinguish between basic and applied sciences. He exploited the most appropriate techniques available and designed his experiments to advance not only a fundamental understanding of plant functions, but also agricultural practices for feeding the world. “We cannot live, there can be no future, unless we husband the integrity of the ultimate non-living resources of life—our life support system of soil, air, water and mineral matter.” He periodically commented that the human population, which was about 1.5 billion when he was born, had increased more than five-fold during his lifetime.
Dr. Epstein was a Guggenheim Fellow and twice a Senior Fulbright Research Fellow. He was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences of the United States in 1978. In 1999, he received the Award of Distinction from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, UC Davis.
Dr. Epstein’s laboratory group was always relatively small, yet he served as a mentor for many generations of plant scientists. Having escaped the rise of National Socialism in Germany as a teenager, he emigrated to a farm in Palestine, received post-secondary education in California, and served in the United States military. These multicultural and multi-language experiences perhaps explain Dr. Epstein’s proficiency in communicating with diverse audiences. He was in demand as a keynote speaker for many national and international conferences on topics related to plant nutrition. He was generous with his time and resources that he shared with associates, no matter what their backgrounds.
Dr. Epstein was fully engaged with current events throughout his life, Every so often, some inappropriate human behavior would goad Dr. Epstein to issue a “Manny-festo,” a well-reasoned letter to the editor that attempted to bring the issue into an appropriate perspective. He promoted the use of scientific method to solve human problems, but realized that “Like life itself, science does not progress in a neat and orderly manner. An idea may come, only to be squelched by the very first experiment meant to test it; a patently poor paper may provide the impetus to clarify the issue through new experiments; a casual question from a student or colleague may spark a flash of insight. Ambition and personal animosities and biases are part of the scene, and occasionally, sheer malice…If our minds were as orderly, as neat, as methodical as our papers make them out to be, no creative science would get done. In short, real science, like real life, is often messy.”
Fortunately, Emanuel Epstein lived a long and productive life. With hindsight, the clarity of scientific progress that he achieved in a lifetime supersedes any messiness that might have occurred in real-time. We can only hope to fulfill the departing sendoff that Dr. Epstein always cheerfully bellowed, “Carry on!”
Wendy Silk
Will Horwath
Arnold Bloom
Patrick Brown
