H. Boyd Woodruff

Harold Boyd Woodruff (July 22, 1917 – January 19, 2017) was an American soil microbiologist and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.[3]

H. Boyd Woodruff
Born	(1917-07-22)July 22, 1917 Bridgeton, New Jersey
Died	January 19, 2017(2017-01-19) (aged 99) Watchung, New Jersey
Education	Rutgers University
Spouse(s)	Jeanette Irene Whitner Woodruff (1920–2015)[1]
Children	Brian and Hugh[2]
Parent(s)	Harold E. Woodruff[2]

He is known for the discovery of actinomycin, and the development of the industrial production by fermentation of many natural products, including cyanocobalamin (a synthetic form of Vitamin B12, the avermectins, and other important antibiotics.

Biography

He was born in Bridgeton, New Jersey into a farming family, that was forced to move out of the state during the Great Depression. His family relocated to Buffalo, New York, Virginia and Florida before returning to his home state.[2][4] After returning to Hopewell Township, Cumberland County, New Jersey, he was able to make up the half-year of school he lost while in Florida attending a school in Shiloh that required him to walk several miles each day. He later attended Hopewell Township School before moving on to Bridgeton High School.[5]

He received a bachelor's degree in soil chemistry from Rutgers University, followed by a Ph.D. from the same university in soil microbiology; his advisor was Selman Waksman. In his doctoral work, he discovered the antibiotics actinomycin and streptothricin.[6] Albert Schatz used the leads from Woodruff's development of streptothricin to create streptomycin. As part of a lawsuit challenging Schatz's claim as discoverer of streptomycin, Woodruff was awarded 2% of the royalties, which he used to fund a scholarship for students at Rutgers studying microbiology.[4]

He died on January 19, 2017, at the age of 99 at his home in Watchung, New Jersey.[4]

Career

He spent his career as a researcher at Merck & Co., rising to the position of Executive Director of Biological Sciences, and Executive Administrator of the Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories in Japan.[4]

After retirement, he founded the firm Soil Microbiology Associates together with his wife Jeanette.

Honors

Woodruff was elected to the Animal, Nutritional, and Applied Microbial Sciences section of the National Academy of Sciences in 1998,[3] received the Waksman Award from the Theobald Smith Society in 2007,[6] and received the NAS Award for the Industrial Application of Science in 2011.[7]

References

1. "Jeanette Irene Whitner Woodruff (1920–2015)". Courier News. March 25, 2015.
2. Woodruff, H. Boyd (August 18, 2004). "Woodruff, H. Boyd" (Interview). Interviewed by Shaun Illingworth and Nicholas Molnar. Watchung, New Jersey. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
3. "National Academy of Sciences Member page". Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
4. Roberts, Sam. "H. Boyd Woodruff, Microbiologist Who Paved Way for Antibiotics, Dies at 99", The New York Times, February 3, 2017. Accessed February 4, 2017.
5. Woodruff, H. Boyd Interview, Rutgers University. Accessed February 4, 2017. "So, my last two years, ... in seventh grade and eighth grade, ... I was in the new Hopewell Township School. Then, students from Hopewell Township went to Bridgeton High School. About forty percent of the students in Bridgeton High School came from the city and the others were from outlying areas, a far-ranging distance, actually all the way down to Port Norris, twenty miles away, and our area was maybe about ten miles away. So, my four years of high school were in Bridgeton High School."
6. "Dr. H. Boyd Woodruff Receives Theobald Smith Society Waksman Award". Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. Retrieved March 9, 2015.
7. "NAS Award for the Industrial Application of Sciencw". National Academy of Sciences. Archived from the original on January 8, 2015. Retrieved January 11, 2015.