David Gottlieb (1911–1982), a professor of plant pathology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1946–1982), was a pioneer in the field of fungal physiology and antibiotics for plants.
Gottlieb is best known for isolation in the 1940s of the strain of Streptomyces from which chloramphenicol was developed,[1] for his mentoring in the field, and for his editorial work.
[2] He used plant-pathogenic fungi in studies of sterol biosynthesis, respiration, aging, spore germination, and the mechanism of action of antifungal antibiotics.
Gottlieb discovered or co-discovered several new antibiotics in addition to chloramphenicol, including filipin, levomycin, and tetrin, and he described the mechanism of action and biosynthesis of several of these and other antibiotics.
[3] In his memory, the "David Gottlieb Memorial Award" is given by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for outstanding published research on the biochemistry of plant diseases or plant pathogens.,[4] This article about an American botanist is a stub.