Alice Victoria Phillips Withrow (September 5, 1907 – April 28, 1998) was an American botanist, plant physiologist and researcher of plant photochemistry. Her focus of study was "the effect of light on the flowering and reproduction of plants" and along with her husband she developed a pioneering method of

hydroponics Hydroponics is a type of horticulture and a subset of #Passive sub-irrigation, hydroculture which involves growing plants, usually crops or medicinal plants, without soil, by using water-based mineral Plant nutrition, nutrient Solution (chemi ...

Biography

Withrow was born on September 5, in

Louisville Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

to Roscoe M. and Ollie (Snawder) Phillips. She attended

Butler University Butler University is a private university in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1855 and named after founder Ovid Butler, the university has over 60 major academic fields of study within six colleges in the arts, business, communic ...

(B.A. degree, botany, 1929) and

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati, informally Cincy) is a public university, public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1819 and had an enrollment of over 53,000 students in 2024, making it the ...

(M.A. degree, 1931), where her master's thesis "Life forms and leaf size classes of certain plant communities of the Cincinnati region" was overseen by

Emma Lucy Braun Emma Lucy Braun (April 19, 1889 – March 5, 1971) was a prominent botany, botanist, ecology, ecologist, and expert on the forests of the eastern United States who was a professor of the University of Cincinnati. She was the first woman to be ...

and published 1932 in the journal ''

Ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...

''. In 1931, she married Robert Bruce Withrow. Their honeymoon trip was the journey to

Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

where they both had new jobs and she later completed her Ph.D. During World War II Withrow and her husband were consulting scientists for the

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its origins to 1 ...

on the problem of growing plants without soil, in part so that the military could "grow perishable vegetables on sandy bases in the Pacific." In May 1945 Withrow was preparing hydroponics kits for shipment to

Canton Island Canton Island (also known as Kanton or Abariringa), previously known as Mary Island, Mary Balcout's Island or Swallow Island, is the largest, northernmost, and , the sole inhabited island of the Phoenix Islands, in the Republic of Kiribati. It i ...

, Espiritu and

Ascension Island Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island, 7°56′ south of the Equator in the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean. It is about from the coast of Africa and from the coast of South America. It is governed as part of the British Overs ...

, with later installations planned for

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New ...

and

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

. A 2006 timeline of the history of hydroponic growing credited Withrow and her husband with introducing "inert gravel" as a growing medium, and noted that in 1945 the Air Force constructed a hydroponic farm on

Wake Island Wake Island (), also known as Wake Atoll, is a coral atoll in the Micronesia subregion of the Pacific Ocean. The atoll is composed of three islets – Wake, Wilkes, and Peale Islands – surrounding a lagoon encircled by a coral reef. The neare ...

that produced tomatoes, string beans, sweet corn and lettuce. In late 1945 she lectured in Chicago on "soil-less culture and the effect of various spectrum colors on the growth rate of plants." After the war, the Withrows published a paper comparing the use of mercury,

incandescent Thermal radiation is electromagnetic radiation emitted by the thermal motion of particles in matter. All matter with a temperature greater than absolute zero emits thermal radiation. The emission of energy arises from a combination of electro ...

and the new

fluorescent lamp A fluorescent lamp, or fluorescent tube, is a low-pressure mercury-vapor gas-discharge lamp that uses fluorescence to produce visible light. An electric current in the gas excites mercury vapor, to produce ultraviolet and make a phosphor ...

s for growing plants. The Withrows' research was featured in the science magazine ''

Popular Mechanics ''Popular Mechanics'' (often abbreviated as ''PM'' or ''PopMech'') is a magazine of popular science and technology, featuring automotive, home, outdoor, electronics, science, do it yourself, and technology topics. Military topics, aviation an ...

'' in October 1946. In 1948 the Withrows relocated to the Smithsonian. In 1956 they co-authored a book chapter on "Generation, control, and measurement of visible and near-visible radiant energy" that was considered an "excellent and thorough review of the problems concerned with lighting." Withrow wrote the preface to a posthumously published book edited by her husband, ''Photoperiodism and related phenomena in plants and animals''. In the 1960s and 1970s, Withrow led the educational materials and instruction development division of the U.S.

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

. Withrow had one child, Anne V. Withrow-Dalager (1934–1996). Withrow died on April 29, 1998, in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Selected works

* * * * * *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Withrow, Alice 1907 births 1998 deaths Scientists from Louisville, Kentucky American women botanists People from Maryland 20th-century American botanists 20th-century American women scientists Butler University alumni University of Cincinnati alumni