Barbara G. Pickard - Queen of Plant Electrophysiology

Barbara Gillespie Pickard (1936-2019) studied plant electrophysiology and mechanosensory biology for more than 50 y. Her first papers on the roles of auxin in plant tropisms were coauthored with Kenneth V. Thimann. Later, she studied plant electrophysiology. She made it clear that plant action potentials are not a peculiar feature of so-called sensitive plants, but that all plants exhibit these fast electric signals. Barbara Gillespie Pickard proposed a neuronal model for the spreading of electric signals induced by mechanical stimuli across plant tissues. In later years, she studied the stretch-activated plasma membrane channels of plants and formulated the plasma-membrane control center model. Barbara Pickard summarized all her findings in a new model of phyllotaxis involving waves of auxin fluxes and mechano-sensory signaling.