Jakub Biale (Bialoglowski)

Jacob Biale, Botany and Plant Biochemistry: Los Angeles

1908-1989 

Professor of Biology, Emeritus
When Jacob Biale arrived in the United States from Poland in 1928 with a suitcase full of books and barely a word of English at his command, a future as a university professor was indeed remote. His intention was to learn practical agriculture, subsequently to apply his skills to the betterment of a kibbutz in what was then Palestine. After two semesters at Berkeley, and two years at Davis to complete a nondegree course in agriculture, he returned to Berkeley to graduate in one year. Three years later he completed a Ph.D. program in subtropical horticulture and plant nutrition. Soon thereafter Jacob was invited by his esteemed mentor, W.H. Chandler, to be a research associate in the Division of Subtropical Horticulture at the new Southern campus, UCLA. When three years later the division was awarded the princely sum of $2,000 by the California Fruit Growers Exchange to study low-temperature storage injury in citrus, Jacob agreed to direct the project. With this act he set foot on the academic ladder and launched his professional career which lasted 55 years at UCLA.

In 1940 Jacob established that vapors from a fungal fruit pathogen, Penicillium digitatum, causes yellowing of green immature lemons. Subsequently, the active vapor component was identified in his laboratory as the gas, ethylene (C2H4), a discovery that had a profound impact on commercial post-harvest practice and research. Subsequently Biale and his prized colleague, the late Roy Young, were among the first to establish that ethylene was the cause rather than the result of fruit ripening.

After returning from a sabbatical leave in 1948 with Nobel Laureate Hans A. Krebs in England, Jacob Biale initiated a course in metabolic biochemistry for biology and biochemistry students that for

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many years proved a mainstay on the UCLA campus. In the following decades his own research reflected his accumulated biochemical insight in an extended series of studies on the ripening-related metabolism of avocado slices and avocado mitochondria, the sub-cellular organelles housing the machinery of aerobic electron transport and energy conservation. These efforts were shared by a distinguished group of graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and visiting scientists from the USA and all over the world.

Jacob served as Chair of the Department of Plant Biochemistry in the College of Agriculture and, on the withdrawal of the College from the UCLA campus, became Chair of the Department of Botany and Plant Biochemistry in the College of Letters and Science in 1963. In 1958, under the aegis of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, he established a laboratory of fruit physiology at the Volcani Agricultural Research Institute in Rehovot, Israel. For this contribution he received a citation for his research activities by the Prime Minister of Israel. Subsequently he served as Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Agriculture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Rehovot. In 1967 he was appointed Chief Scientist of the Plant Physiology program of the NSF-sponsored S.S. a-Helix expedition to the Amazon. Subsequently, as organizer and chair of the 1976 Gordon Conference on plant senescence, he received a commendation for “the furtherance of knowledge on the frontiers of science.” Throughout his career he organized and contributed to numerous panels of national and international congresses.

Jacob was the proverbial man for all seasons, inspiring loyalty--and love--by his outgoing, solicitous nature, his unassuming ingenuous person, his good humor and unremittingly high standards. He was a founder of the Cynical Seminar, a cohort of brown-baggers-faculty, post-docs, and graduate students from all over the campus who met in his laboratory through a period of almost 30 years for lunch and to settle the affairs of the world, the nation and the university with a fitting mixture of skepticism and irreverence. The Cynical Seminar provided an interdisciplinary focus of campus cohesion that did much to strengthen the collegiality at UCLA in its formative years.

With his wife, Evelyn, he cherished the High Sierras, on foot or on skis. He was a devoted father to his three children, and a paragon to his seven grandchildren. He folk-danced, played tennis and chess, cycled, read profusely and travelled widely. He was deeply interested in Jewish history, both secular and religious, and was honored by Migdal, an American Zionist organization, which established a scholarship

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in his name to support a student from a Zionist-oriented kibbutz in agriculture studies at an Israeli university.

Retirement freed him to expand his horizons; he taught cell and molecular biology in the Extension Division, and offered a special undergraduate seminar-style course at UCLA on the origin and evolution of life. He was appointed to a select Chancellor's Advisory Committee created to strengthen the ties between the PLATO (Perpetual Learning and Teaching Organization) Society, administered through UCLA extension, and campus departments. He served as Visiting Professor of Science at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and continued to present lectures and participate in symposia around the world.

Jacob was a living gift to his family and friends, a joy to his colleagues and a guide and exemplar to his students. He never ceased to acknowledge the nourishment he received from the University of California, and in return he never failed to give in full measure to the University.