Derald George Langham: Difference between revisions
Rewrite in encyclopedic third person; add sourced biography, career, Genesa, honors; fix death date (May 10, 1991) and death_date template; add infobox fields and external links |
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| birth_date = {{birth date|1913|05|27|mf=y}} | | birth_date = {{birth date|1913|05|27|mf=y}} | ||
| birth_place = Polk City, Iowa, United States | | birth_place = Polk City, Iowa, United States | ||
| death_date = {{death date|1991| | | death_date = {{death date and age|1991|5|10|1913|5|27}} | ||
| death_place = Wellton, Arizona, United States | | death_place = Wellton, Arizona, United States | ||
| residence = Wellton, AZ, United States | | residence = Wellton, AZ, United States | ||
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[[Category:Scientist|Langham Derald]] | [[Category:Scientist|Langham Derald]] | ||
[[Category:Worldwide List of Dissident Scientists]] | |||
Latest revision as of 16:15, 20 July 2026
Derald George Langham | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | May 27, 1913 Polk City, Iowa, United States |
| Died | May 10, 1991 (aged 77) Wellton, Arizona, United States |
| Residence | Wellton, AZ, United States |
| Nationality | USA |
| Alma mater | Iowa State College, Cornell University, United States International University |
| Known for | Sesame genetics, the Genesa geometric model |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Genetics, plant breeding |
Derald George Langham (May 27, 1913 – May 10, 1991) was an American agricultural geneticist and plant breeder, known for his research on the genetics of sesame and, later in life, for developing the geometric conceptual model he called "Genesa". Widely described as the "father of sesame" in the Western Hemisphere, he bred many of the sesame lines subsequently grown throughout the Americas.
Biography
Langham was born on May 27, 1913, on a farm near Polk City, Iowa, where an early exposure to agriculture shaped his lifelong interest in plants and animals. He studied agronomy at Iowa State College and then pursued graduate work in genetics at Cornell University, where he received a Ph.D. in plant genetics in 1939 under Rollins A. Emerson. In 1969 he earned a second doctorate, a Ph.D. in humanities, from the United States International University in San Diego.
In 1939, while still in his twenties, Langham was engaged by the Venezuelan government as geneticist at the country's first agricultural experiment station, near Caracas. He directed Venezuela's national plant genetics program and remained active in the country into the late 1950s, later maintaining ties through his company Genetica Venezolana, S.A. He died on May 10, 1991, in Wellton, Arizona.
Scientific contributions
Langham conducted foundational research on the genetics of sesame (Sesamum indicum), and most of the sesame lines later grown in the Americas trace to his breeding work. He also worked on corn and beans; his corn material was incorporated by the Rockefeller Institute's program in Mexico, and a high-yielding variety he developed was reported to have substantially increased corn yields in Venezuela. Over his career he produced more than 100 publications in scholarly outlets. He founded the non-profit Sesamum Foundation and was a co-founder of the Sesaco Corporation, based in San Antonio, Texas.
Genesa
In the 1950s, while seeking to keep his genetic strains of sesame from cross-mixing during heavy rains, Langham observed that his plants grew better when arranged in circular beds rather than straight rows. This work led him to found the Genesa Foundation, which promoted "Circle Gardening" methods and the broader set of ideas he termed Genesa. According to Langham, the name combined the word "gene" with the letters "SA", for South America.
Langham described the Genesa Concept as "a model that can carry us from one learning experience to another, integrate the known, and probe into the unknown." His "Genesa Crystal", a cuboctahedral form, was intended to mirror the cellular pattern of an embryonic organism after the third cell division, the eight-cell stage at which, he held, the cellular structure of all life forms is identical. Langham regarded this eight-cell cluster as a point of full, infinite potential, writing that it held "the full potential for infinite love, for infinite wisdom, for infinite form, for infinite energy, for infinite power, for the Soul, for eternal time, for infinite velocity, for infinite faith. It has all your goals, your desires, your motivations - even life itself." He further stated that Genesa Crystals "make visible the invisible, make visible the geometry of the energy fields that envelope our 3rd dimensional system and penetrate it to the core."
Honors
- Order of Merit of Performance, awarded by Venezuela in 1972.
Books
- 1978 - "Circle Gardening: Producing Food by Genesa Principles" (Read in full)
- 1969 - "Genesa: an Attempt to Develop a Conceptual Model to Synthesize, Synchronize and Vitalize Man's Interpretation of Universal Phenomena"
- 1967 - "13-dimensional Genetics: Tomorrow's Thinking Today" (Read in full)
External links
- Derald Langham at Wikipedia
- Circle Gardening at Open Library