Ezra Jacob Kraus (March 19, 1885 – February 28, 1960) was an American

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and

horticulturist Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...

. Kraus was born in

Ingham County, Michigan Ingham County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 284,900. The county seat is Mason. Lansing, the state capital of Michigan, is largely located within the county. Lansing is the o ...

and earned a bachelor's degree at Michigan State Agricultural College in 1907. He taught horticulture at

Oregon State College Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate degree programs and a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees through all 11 of the universit ...

, (now Oregon State University) for several years before earning a PhD in botany at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

in 1917. He returned to Oregon State where he served as dean of the Division of Basic Arts and Sciences (1917–1919), and in 1919 was hired by the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

, where he taught botany until 1927. He then taught botany at the University of Chicago, where he served as chair of the department from 1934 to 1947 and officially retired from the university in 1949, after which he became a visiting professor at Oregon State College. He died in 1960 in Corvallis.

References

External links

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Guide to the Ezra J. Kraus Papers 1915–1947
at University of Chicago Library 1885 births 1960 deaths 20th-century American botanists People from Ingham County, Michigan University of Chicago faculty University of Chicago alumni Oregon State University faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty American horticulturists {{US-botanist-stub