Helge Ness (November 4, 1861 – December 30, 1928) was a Norwegian

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 ...

. He was born in

Rosendal, Norway Rosendal is the administrative centre of the municipality of Kvinnherad in Vestland county, Norway. The village is located on the southern shore of the Hardangerfjorden, about north of the village of Dimmelsvik and about straight west of the va ...

. In 1889, he became the first international student to graduate from

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

, and began to work at that university. Ness was the first botanist in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

to produce hybrid

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

s. He became head of the Botanical Division of Texas Agricultural Experiment Station (now

Texas AgriLife Research Texas A&M AgriLife Research is the agricultural and life sciences research agency of the U.S. state of Texas and a part of the Texas A&M University System. Formerly named Texas Agricultural Research Service, the agency's name was changed January ...

). Ness was part of a group of botanists at the beginning of the 20th century who studied controlled pollination in trees and pioneered studies of tree hybridization.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ness, Helge 1861 births 1928 deaths People from Kvinnherad 20th-century Norwegian botanists 19th-century Norwegian botanists Norwegian emigrants to the United States