Draft:Trevor Alleyne Thorpe

Trevor Alleyne Thorpe (October 18, 1936 - May 18, 2020)

Dr. Trevor Alleyne Thorpe was born in Bridgetown, Barbados (Parents: Mitchell and Violet (nee Alleyne) Thorpe). After graduating from Harrison College, Barbados in 1953, he received a Jawaharlal Nehru Scholarship to study for his bachelor’s degree (1956-1960) at the Allahabad Agricultural Institute (AAI) in Allahabad, India (presently known as Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology, and Sciences). Dr. Thorpe pursued his graduate studies as a Fullbright Scholar at the University of California, Riverside. He received his Ph.D. degree working in the laboratory of Toshio Murashige, who is well known for the Murashige and Skoog medium.Professor Murashige was a student of Professor Folke Karl Skoog, famous for his discovery of cytokinins. Dr. Thorpe was a post-doctoral fellow at the US Department of Agriculture research facility in Pasadena, California. He loved to travel for sabbaticals, conferences, delivering lectures, and conducting workshops. He made friends easily with his hearty laughter, his love for music, dancing, photography, and baseball.

Born	October 18,1936 Barbados
Died	May 18, 2020 (aged 83) Calgary, Canada
Spouse	Yvonne Thorpe (nee Cumberbatch, married 1963); 2 children, Anthony (1969), and Jennifer (1970)
Awards	Lifetime Achievement Award, SIVB, USA (2004)
Scientific career
Fields	Plant Physiology, Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology
Institutions	Allahabad Agricultural Institute (AAI) Allahabad, India, University of California, Riverside, University of Calgary, Canada

Academic Life

With the stellar academic lineage, Thorpe began his independent academic career as an assistant professor at the University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 1969 and remained there as a professor until retirement in 2000. During that time, he established a world-class laboratory that attracted graduate students from all over the globe. As part of his academic legacy, Thorpe trained an impressive number of researchers – 15 Ph.D. students, 14 master’s students, 25 Postdoctoral Fellows, and many visiting scientists – who collectively identify themselves as proud members of ‘Team Thorpe’. Some of his students and postdocs include: Dan Brown, Prakash P. Kumar, Jenny Aitken-Christie, Victor Villalobos, Kamlesh Patel, Eng-Chong Pua, Indra Harry, Richard Joy IV, Kiran Sharma Michael Thompson, Paco Saborio, Sankaran Krishnaraj, Stephen Chandler and Chin-yi Lu. His research was focused on physiological aspects of plant morphogenesis using explants – excised pieces of plant parts – cultured in vitro. His work contributed to our fundamental understanding of organized plant development in vivo and in vitro. His later work contributed extensively to conifer biotechnology. Thorpe was a pioneering scientist in the field of plant tissue culture and biotechnology. He published more than 220 scientific works. One of his books, “Plant Tissue Culture: Methods and Applications in Agriculture” was an essential go-to book for all plant tissue culturists in the pre-internet era. Another noteworthy contribution was the highly cited, landmark paper entitled “Plant tissue culture media” (1976) that was authored jointly by four of the undisputed giants in the field, namely, OL Gamborg, T Murashige, TA Thorpe and IK Vasil . From the 1970s through the late 1990s Thorpe’s lab developed in vitro plant propagation protocols for several conifers that were of importance to the temperate forestry industry. The general focus was on micropropagation, including, organogenesis and embryogenesis and complementary studies, all of which contributed to the fundamental understanding of organized development in vitro. Thus, Thorpe’s lab contributed the most exhaustive studies on all aspects of conifer tissue culture . Besides the micropropagation protocols, research from his lab contributed significantly to a clearer understanding of the nature of plant regeneration and the histological details of the origin of shoot buds or somatic embryos from various explants. Furthermore, from a practical viewpoint, some of these protocols were applied directly to commercial plant micropropagation systems.

Scientific legacy

Besides regular teaching and research, Thorpe contributed to the University administration and the scientific community. He held various academic positions as Head, Department of Biological Sciences, Assistant and Associate Dean at the University of Calgary. As a pioneering scientist he played leading roles in the International Association for Plant Tissue Culture (IAPTC, now known as the International Association for Plant Biotechnology or IAPB) and the Society for In Vitro Biology, USA (SIVB). He was the Chair/President of IAPTC from 1974 to 1978 and organized the 1978 IAPTC Calgary conference (https://iapbhome.com/about/). He was the founding Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journal In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology-Plant and served as a member of the editorial boards for several scientific journals, including Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture, Tree Physiology, Phytomorphology, and Physiologia Plantarum. He was an active contributor to various international organizations and trained scientists around the world through workshops he conducted in Mexico, Bangladesh, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Costa Rica. Trevor Alleyne Thorpe led a tremendously productive, fulfilling and active life. He was a successful teacher and scientist, an effective administrator, editor, and outstanding mentor for numerous people from around the world. He passed away on May 18, 2020 at the age of 83 years.