The Legacy of Dr. Demetrios M. Yermanos

Dr. Demetrios M. Yermanos, professor of agronomy and agronomist, was born in Thessaloniki, Greece. His education in the plant sciences started when he pursued both a master's degree in Greece and the United States. Dr. Yermanos studied agronomy from the University of Thessaloniki in 1946 and plant breeding from Iowa State University in 1952. Dr. Yermanos finished his Ph.D. in genetics at the University of California, Davis.

Following World War II, Dr. Yermanos served as assistant to the director of American Agricultural Mission in northern Greece, with responsibility for visits with U.S. agricultural experts of local farms. He interrupted this activity to serve three years as an ordnance officer in the Greek army. After obtaining his MS degree in the US, he returned to Greece in 1953 to serve as World Council of Churches director in northern Greece. In this position, he assisted with the emigration to Canada and Australia of individuals from rural populations who had been displaced or injured during World War II or the Greek Civil War. He also represented the Church World Service as immigration assistant in New York from December 1955 to September 1956.

His lifelong interest in oilseed crops, no doubt, was deeply rooted in Greek tradition of the veneration of oil and the olive tree. As specialist in the Department of Agronomy and Range Science at UC Davis, he initiated research with safflower, sunflower and flax. His doctoral thesis evaluated the level of epistatic gene action in oilseed flax. When the Department of Agronomy was established on the Riverside campus in 1961, Dr. Yermanos was appointed as one of the original faculty members in the department. Here, he continued his oilseed research, investigating flowering and capsule development.

Dr. Demetrios M. Yermanos' legacy is kept alive through an endowment created to celebrate him. This endowment is responsible for bringing enrichment to the Botany and Plant Science department through guest speakers at our biennial Yermanos seminar talk and through the funding of students.

More information about the history of the Botany and Plant Sciences Department can be found here.