Oral History Interview: Paul Williams (1069)

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In his 2010 interviews with Bob Lange, Paul Williams details his early life, education, and five decades of involvement with the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In the first two interviews, he traces his growing passion for the natural world as experienced around Vancouver, BC, and recounts how this passion was encouraged by his relationships with his family and close friends. In the next three interviews, he chronicles his undergraduate and graduate education, noting the prominent influence of Glenn Pound and J. C. Walker as his mentors, and discussing being offered a position at UW following a year at the Boyce Thompson Institute. The final five interviews consist of William?s reflections on his major contributions to plant pathology, the training of plant breeders, teaching (especially in Biocore), rapid-cycling Brassicas (Fast Plants �), educational models such as Bottle Biology and the Center for Biology Education, his graduate students, and his public service. Throughout, he shares anecdotes about major figures and events he?d interacted with, such as World War II, Glenn Pound, J. C. Walker, Russell Labs, Science magazine, the Guggenheim Foundation, WARF, the NSF, Sputnik, the Madison Plan, and early 1970s diplomacy with China. This interview was conducted for inclusion into the UW-Madison Oral History Program.

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