Frits Warmolt Went

Born May 18, 1903, in Utrecht, the Netherlands. American plant physiologist. Member of the National Academy of Sciences (Washington).

Went received his education at the University of Utrecht. In 1928 he defended his doctoral dissertation on the growth substances of plants; after that he worked at the Buitenzorg Botanical Gardens on the island of Java. From 1933 he worked in the USA at the California Institute of Technology, from 1935 as professor. From 1958 he was director of the Missouri Botanical Gardens, and then he worked at the Desert Research Institute of the University of Nevada in the city of Reno. He investigated growth substances, the nature of tropisms, and the effect of external factors on the growth and development of plants. In 1928 he isolated a growth hormone, which was later called auxin. Almost simultaneously with the Soviet botanist N. G. Kholodnyi (1927), Went advanced the theory of the phytohormonal nature of tropisms, which was later called the Kholodnyi-Went theory. Under Went’s guidance the first phytotron (airconditioned greenhouse) was constructed in 1949 in the city of Pasadena, Calif.