M. J. Thirumalachar

Mandayam Jeersannidhi Thirumalachar (22 September 1914 – 21 April 1999) was an Indian mycologist, microbiologist, plant pathologist and the co-founder of Jeersannidhi-Anderson Institute, California.

[3][4] The young boy was named after his great grandfather, Jeersannidhi Thirumalachar Swamy, erstwhile head of Sri Yadugiri Yathiraja Mutt, a vaishnavite religious center situated in Melukote.

[1][note 1] On his return to India, he served at Banaras Hindu University as the head of the department of Mycology and Plant Pathology and at the Central College of Bangalore.

Subsequently, he joined Central Potato Research Institute, Patna as the Chief Plant Pathologist but moved to Hindustan Antibiotics Limited (HAL) where he headed the R and D division.

Later, he returned to the US and served as a professor at the Department of Pediatrics of University of Minnesota Medical School[1] where he worked on the incorporation of human insulin gene in yeast cells[6] and also had a short stint as a visiting scientist at the Danish Institute of Seed Pathology, Copenhagen.

[13] He was the first scientist, along with M. J. Narasimhan and Charles Gardner Shaw [es],[3] to describe the genus Sclerophthora, which he published in an article, "The sporangial phase of the downy mildew Elensine coracana with a discussion of the identity of Sclerospora macrospora Sacc."

[19] He furthered the studies of the British mycologist, Arthur Barclay, on Aecidium esculentum, and identified Ravenelia esculenta as the causal factor for malformations in Acacia eburnea.

[citation needed] At University of Minnesota, he developed a set of chemicals, New chemotherapeutic agents for the control of plant and animal diseases,[35] that has since been put to use as a product, Phyton-27, by Phyton Corporation.

[48] The Indian National Science Academy elected Thirumalachar as their fellow in 1956;[49] INSA honored him again in 1967 with Sunder Lal Hora Medal.