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Margaret Brown Newton (20 April 1887 – 6 April 1971) was a Canadian plant pathologist and mycologist internationally renowned for her pioneering research in stem rust ''Puccinia graminis'', particularly for its effect on the staple Canadian agricultural product wheat. Newton never married, and was regarded as a friendly and persistent individual with drive and a warm personality. She often "worked to the point of exhaustion". ==Early life== Newton was born in Montreal on 20 April 1887 to John Newton and Elizabeth Brown. She had four younger siblings, three brothers named Robert, John, and William, and a sister named Dorothy. Her father was a chemist interested in the application of science to farming. Her formal education began in a one-room schoolhouse at North Nation Mills, a mill town of about 300 residents on the Petite-Nation River north of Plaisance. The family moved to Montreal when her father took a higher-paying job. There, Newton completed middle school and two years of high school, after which the family returned to Plaisance. Here, Newton completed high school, attended country school for two more years, then taught at the North Nation Mills schoolhouse for one year. She then moved to Vankleek Hill in Ontario, continuing her education at Vankleek Hill Collegiate Institute before completing her teacher training at the Toronto Normal School. She then taught in Lachine for three years, and at the North Nation Mills schoolhouse for one year. The money she saved was used to finance her post-secondary education. Passionate about art, Newton enrolled in an Arts program at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, completing one year of studies before returning to Montreal, where she enrolled in an agricultural program at Macdonald College. There, she was the only female in a class of 50 students, and was the recipient of the Governor General's Academic Medal for top achievement. At this time, she joined the Quebec Society for the Protection of Plants, becoming its first female member. She was also a member of the debating society, and president of the literary society for one year. Her advisor W.P. Fraser travelled to Western Canada in 1917 so he could begin researching stem rust from a devastating epidemic in 1916 that had destroyed 100 million bushels of wheat worth about $200 million. He assigned Newton to study the samples he collected, who accepted only after the school's dean eliminated restrictions on women using laboratory facilities at night; she still had to contend with the 22:00 curfew of her residence. During her research, she discovered that stem rust spores infected wheat with different rapaciousness. Newton and her friend Pearl Clayton Stanford graduated in 1918 with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture (B.S.A.), becoming the first women to complete a degree at the college. The next year, she received a Master of Science (M.Sc.) degree, for which her thesis ''The Resistance of Wheat Varieties to Puccinia graminis'' covered "different spore forms within the stem rust fungus". Throughout, her academic achievement was the top of her class. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Margaret Newton」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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