Nielsen, L. W. (Lowell Wendell), 1910-1988

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.

From the guide to the L. W. Nielsen Papers, 1950 - 1980, (Special Collections Research Center)