Johanna Westerdijk, Dutch Plant Pathologist
Johanna (Han) Westerdijk (January 4, 1883 - November 15, 1961) was a Dutch plant pathologist. In 1906, at the age of 23, she was offered a directorship position at Willie Commelin Scholten, a phytopathological laboratory in the Netherlands. The laboratory under her supervision became an internationally respected institution of phytopathology, and recognized today with independent status as an institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1917, she was the first female professor in the Netherlands, serving as associate professor of plant pathology in Utrecht University and in 1930 at the University of Amsterdam with a total of 55 PhD students earning their degrees under her supervision. She wrote over 70 publications covering a broad aspect of plant diseases and mycology, but her main interest was in pathogenic diseases of trees and physiological disease of plants and how to control them. In the 1920s, she was involved in understanding a new lethal vascular disease in elms (Dutch elm disease). Westerdijk was active in the International Federation of University Women, now known as Graduate Women International. She served as the organization's president from 1932-36. She never married and died in 1961 at the age of 78. No photographer credited, 1910s-1920s
