Joseph Smartt
Joseph ("Joe") Smartt (9 September 1931 – 7 June 2013) was a British geneticist with major contributions to the knowledge of crop evolution, especially of grain legumes.[1]
Education and early life
[edit]Born in West Ham, East London, Smartt graduated from Durham University in 1952 with a botany degree.[1][2] He was a member of Hatfield College during his undergraduate studies.[3] He then studied at Cambridge University (Christ's College) for a diploma in agricultural science.[2]
In 1954, he went to Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), where he bred groundnuts until 1961.[2] He completed his PhD in the Department of Genetics at North Carolina State University (NCSU) in 1965; his thesis was a study on cross compatibility between the cultivated groundnut, Arachis hypogaea, and wild species.[2]
Career and research
[edit]Smartt joined Southampton University in 1967 as a lecturer in the Department of Botany.[1] He was promoted to Reader in Biology in 1990.[1] Southampton University awarded him a Doctor of Science (DSc) in 1989 for his work on the genetics and evolution of crop plants.[1] He retired from Southampton in 1996.[4]
Smartt authored two books on grain legumes, edited a major volume on groundnuts, and was invited to co-edit a second edition of the important Evolution of Crop Plants with Professor Norman Simmonds.[2] As a researcher, his most influential work concerned the diversity, evolution, and domestication syndromes in grain legumes.[4]
His hobby of goldfish breeding and judging generated a long-standing research interest in the genetics of goldfish, publishing two books on the subject and serving as scientific adviser to the Goldfish Society of Great Britain.[4][1]
Selected publications
[edit]Books
[edit]- Smartt, Joseph (1976). Tropical Pulses. Longman. ISBN 9780582466791.
- ——— (1990). Grain Legumes: Evolution and Genetic Resources. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521307970.
- ———; Simmonds, Norman W. (1995). Evolution of Crop Plants (2nd ed.). Longman Scientific & Technical. ISBN 9780582086432.
- Simmonds, Norman W.; Smartt, Joseph (1999). Principles of Crop Improvement (2nd ed.). Blackwell Science. ISBN 9780632041916.
- Smartt, Joseph (2001). Goldfish Varieties and Genetics: Handbook for Breeders. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 9780852382653.
Journal articles
[edit]- Smartt, Joseph (1980). "Some observations on the origin and evolution of the winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus)". Euphytica. 29 (1): 121–123.
- ——— (1984). "Evolution of grain legumes I. Mediterranean pulses". Experimental Agriculture. 20: 275–296.
- ——— (1986). "Evolution of grain legumes. VI. The future—the exploitation of evolutionary knowledge". Experimental Agriculture. 22: 39–58.
- ——— (2007). "A possible genetic basis for species replacement: preliminary results of interspecific hybridisation between native crucian carp Carassius carassius (L.) and introduced goldfish Carassius auratus (L.)". Aquatic Invasions. 2 (1): 59–62.
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Obituary: Dr Joe Smartt". Practical Fishkeeping. 25 June 2013. Archived from the original on 15 April 2018. Retrieved 27 July 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Mike Jackson (12 January 2016). "The International Year of Pulses 2016: Remembering Dr. Joe Smartt". Plant Science Today. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
- ↑ "Hatfield Association Annual General Meeting 2013" (PDF). Hatfield Association. p. 2. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
- 1 2 3 Jackson, Michael T. (2013). "Dr. Joseph Smartt (1931–2013)". Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution. 60: 1921–1922. doi:10.1007/s10722-013-0044-7.