NCSU peopleNCSU
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Items transferred from the North Carolina State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Consult Departmental Accessions file for detailed information.
Transferred from the North Carolina State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Department of Plant Pathology. Consult University Archivist for additional information.
[Identification of Item], L. W. Nielsen Papers, MC 346, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, North Carolina.
North Carolina State University owns copyright to this collection. Individuals obtaining materials from the NCSU Libraries' Special Collections Research Center are responsible for using the works in conformance with United States copyright law as well as any donor restrictions accompanying the materials.
Lowell Wendell Nielsen was born on April 23, 1910, in Weston, Idaho. He attended Utah State University, earning a bachelors degree in 1935, and a masters degree in 1937. He went on to earn his doctorate at Cornell University in 1941. Later that year he was appointed an assistant professor at North Carolina State College (later North Carolina State University), a position he held until 1944. Nielsen held held jobs as a pathologist and a horticulturist in Illinois and Idaho until he returned to N.C. State in 1948 as an associate professor. He was named a full professor in 1955, where he remained until his retirement in 1975.
While at State, his primary research interests were diseases affecting Irish potatoes and sweet potatoes; His research activities yielded over 70 publications during his lifetime. In addition, he also was the first professor to run the Plant Disease Clinic when that was established by the Plant Pathology Department in 1951. His research landed him a Fulbright Grant in 1964, which he used to conduct sweet potato research in New Zealand for nearly a year.
Nielsen married the former Davora Edmunds. Together they had three children. He died in Raleigh on August 9, 1988, aged 78.
The collection consists of correspondence written by and to L. W. Nielsen. The material largely relates to his research activities on potatoes and sweet potatoes, but also contains some personal correspondence as well, particularly during his Fulbright Grant studies in New Zealand during 1964 and 1965.
This material has been left in the order in which Professor Nielsen apparently filed it. From 1950 to 1962, the correspondence is arranged chronologically, and alphabetically within each year. During that time, only his correspondence regarding Southern Bacterial Wilt was filed separately. Beginning in 1963, his filing system changed, being subsequently arranged alphabetically by sender or recipient, without regard to year. The only exception to the above is his New Zealand correspondence from 1964 - 1965, which is again filed separately. It should also be noted that some correspondence prior to 1963 also exists in this latter group.