Dedication: Jules Janick
Dr Jules Janick, James Troop Distinguished Professor of Horticulture in the Department of Horticulture & Landscape Architecture at Purdue University, is undoubtedly one the most well known and well regarded horticultural scientists in the world today. As the founder of Horticultural Reviews, and the related Plant Breeding Reviews, he is highly deserving of having this volume dedicated to him. His contributions to horticultural science have been extensive, embracing many aspects of the discipline. He has been truly international in his endeavors.
Jules was born in New York City in 1931, and graduated with a B.S. in Agriculture from Cornell University in 1951. This was followed by an M.S. (1952) and a Ph.D. (1954) - both at Purdue University in genetics and breeding. He was 23 years old at the completion of the Ph.D. - an early indication of his commitment and productivity!
Within his career in horticultural research, Jules and his students (13 masters and 17 doctoral) have made important advances in the genetics of sex determination, including the synthesis of heteromorphic sex chromosomes in spinach, fire blight resistance, cleistogamy, cucurbitacins, artemisisin production, anthocyanin pigmentation, plant density, in vitro metabolite production from somatic embryos, and the production of synthetic seed. In crop improvements he has been associated with the release of 21 scab-resistant apple cultivars, three pear cultivars with tolerance to fire blight, delayed-bolting arugula, crack-resistant tomato (for Brazil), and the first release of a cultivar (pelargonium) from somaclonal variation.
In a particular niche area of study, Professor Janick has made contributions to the historical aspects of horticulture, with emphasis on ancient Egypt and the New World, and has explored the relation of art and horticultural technology with special studies on the iconography of Rubus, Daucus, the Cucurbitaceae, the Solanaceae, and opening up a new approach to the study of plant diversity, origins, cultivar evolution, and diversity. He has contributed iconographic studies on Dioscorides, the Drake Manuscript, the Unicorn Tapestries, Caravaggio, Cotan, and the Raphael frescoes in the Villa Farnesina in Rome. He has written on the inter-relationship of horticulture and scholarship, art, ethics, and the contributions of horticulture to human welfare. At present, he is immersed with Dr Arthur Tucker in the unraveling of the bizarre Voynich Codex, demonstrated to be a 16th century Mesoamerican herbal.
Professor Janick has taught many courses, including genetics, horticultural plant breeding, seed production, plant propagation, tropical horticulture, and the history of horticulture. The last two courses are now offered continuously online with over 500 students per year.
Jules has been a prolific author and editor in horticultural science. He was the editor of HortScience from 1970 to 1983 (14 volumes) and transformed it into one of the major journals in horticulture. He was editor of the Journal of American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) from 1976 to 1983 (8 volumes). He is the founder and editor of both Horticultural Reviews (44 volumes since 1979) and Plant Breeding Reviews (40 volumes since 1983), one of his major achievements. From 2002 to 2010 he was the science editor of Chronica Horticulturae (International Society for Horticultural Science, ISHS), and transformed this publication into a significant magazine of world horticulture. He has edited and produced seven proceedings of New Crops symposia since 1990 that have had a deep impact on new crop information. The development of a new crop website (www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop) has become a major world resource for information on crops.
Professor Janick is the author of the book Horticultural Science (4 editions), an influential text that has been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, and Hindi. Another text - Crop Science; An Introduction to World Crops - has gone through three editions. He has organized a number of monographs on fruit breeding, including Advances in Fruit Breeding (translated into Chinese, Russian, and Spanish), Methods in Fruit Breeding, and a three-volume update of Advances entitled Fruit Breeding. Jules has edited eight volumes of Acta Horticulturae. Altogether, he has authored, co-authored or edited over 140 volumes of books, journal volumes, proceedings, and monographs. Dr Janick also co-edited the CABI Encyclopedia of Fruit and Nuts (2008). He has authored 61 book chapters and 427 papers, of which half are in refereed journals.
Jules had the vision to initiate Horticultural Reviews in 1979. At that time, reviews on horticultural topics were limited in both length and scope, and did not do justice to the volume of horticultural research that had been conducted particularly in the latter half of the 20th century. This new publication fulfilled that niche and has grown to be a valued source of information for scholars, scientists, and horticulturists worldwide. A total of 349 review articles, comprising 18 936 pages in aggregate, have been included in the 44 volumes published to date (noting that in some years more than one volume was published). Each volume is dedicated to a horticulturist. Throughout that period Jules remained the sole editor, soliciting manuscripts, cajoling authors to deliver by the due date, and editing the copy received. He was tireless in each of these pursuits. In 1983 he founded Plant Breeding Reviews (40 volumes), with about half the articles devoted to horticultural crops.
The impact that Jules Janick has had on horticulture has not been confined to the USA. He served two years at the Rural University of Minas Gerais in Brazil in 1963-1965 as part of a USAID Purdue contract, where he lectured in Portuguese. The list of countries that he has visited while participating in meetings, consulting, conducting research, advising, and teaching is extensive, and includes Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Belgium, Canada, Canary Islands, Columbia, Costa Rica, Crete, Ecuador, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Norway, People's Republic of China, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, Tanzania, and Turkey.
Among his numerous recognitions are several awards of ASHS, the Wilder award of the American Pomological Society, corresponding member of the Italian Academy of Agriculture, and four honorary degrees [University of Bologna (1990), the Technical University of Lisbon (1994), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2007), and University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicien, Cluj-Napoka, Romania]. He served as President of the American Society for Horticultural Science in 1986-87, and was inducted to the ASHS Hall of Fame in 2009. In 2011 he received the Lifetime award of the National Association of Plant Breeders. He also served on the Board of the ISHS for two terms (2002-2010). He is a Fellow of the ASHS (1976), of the Portuguese Horticultural Association (1981), the ISHS (2006), and is an ISHS Honorary Member (2010).
In the nomination of Professor Janick for the ASHS Hall of Fame Award in 2008, Dr Fred Bliss (Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Davis) stated the following:
"Seldom, if ever, has anyone made the breadth and depth of contributions to the field of horticulture as Jules has done. Whether a person is a professional horticulturist or hobbyist, in academia or business, breeder or physiologist, author or reader, you likely would have heard about and benefited from Jules' multiple interests. In addition to his numerous contributions to teaching and extended education in the academic setting, he is a teacher in the broadest sense by virtue of his tireless efforts to expound and promote horticulture by research, scientific publications, and wonderful oral/visual presentations."
In the same nomination, Dr Martin J. Bukovac (Professor Emeritus at Michigan State University) stated:
"He is an individual with a missionary commitment to advance horticulture locally, nationally and internationally through his extensive lecturing, writing, advising and organiser of conferences. He has rekindled an interest in the art and history of horticulture - and is probably the world's authority in both. ...Jules is a human catalyst in bringing people together from various disciplines, nationally and internationally, in organising projects, publications, and conferences and seeing them to fruition. One look at his CV confirms that Jules is an outstanding educator, scientist and horticulturist..".
Jules, the Renaissance man, is the poet laureate of the Horticulture Department and a talented artist. Throughout his career, Jules has been ably supported by Shirley, his wife of 64 years. They have a son, Peter, a daughter Robin, and four grandsons, Noah, Lee, Nathan, and Aaron. He regards his family as his greatest achievement. His credo has been that advances in horticulture throughout the centuries represent some of the greatest human accomplishments for the betterment of humanity and he is strongly committed to the view that horticulture provides food for body and soul.
IAN WARRINGTON
Emeritus Professor
Massey University
Palmerston North
New Zealand
In 2016, Jules passed the editorship of Horticultural Reviews to Dr Ian...
