During my first year at SLU I met
Professor James Mac Key. He is a legend for every plant breeder, one
of the doers of the Green Revolution. He is a creator of a huge
collection of plant material that can be used for plant breeding and
to study genetics, physiology, and ecology of wheat, triticaly,
barley, and oat. The significance and usefulness of his collection
was beyond imagination. Part of his treasure was duplicated and
stored at Nordic Gene Bank, but he had much more than that. When we
met, he had some difficulties with walking due to his respectable
age, but his mind is sharp and his memory admirable. It was enjoyable
to talk to him.
What did SLU do to Prof. Mac Key?
First, they threw Prof. Mac Key's collection out of the cold storage
room. He was forced to keep part of his previously huge collection of
seeds, at his small office, but these conditions were definitively
not suitable for preservation.
Prof. Mac Key often came to his office
to work on his book. Probably, even his appearance bothered SLU and
one day they decided to take his office and to withdraw his access to
the building. Of
course, the proper explanations were provided and, of course, they
did it for the better good! But these people with frostbitten brains,
could not understand what work means for scientists like Prof. Mac
Key. The ability to continue working, to stay a part of academia is
vitally important for people like Prof. Mac Key.
I see two possible explanations for SLU
behavior:
1. They have don’t have enough
knowledge to understand the level Prof. Mac Key and the significance
of his collection.
2. They feared to compare their results
with his. Even if gathered together the practical results of all
subsequent generations of SLU “professors” together would not
outweigh results of Prof. Mac Key. All their articles and posters
are good only as wallpapers at their offices. Of course, the mountain
of real, genuine, and useful material was for them like a bone in a
throat.
SLU “scientists” talk a lot about
“visions” and “missions” and looks like they care about the
University. But why they did not even bother to submit an article
about Prof. Mac Key to Wikipedia? I keep looking for the article and
still it is an empty place there. They must of have done it a long
time ago, if not to express a gratitude to the World-class scientist,
but at least to promote the University, about the future of which
they talk so much.
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