Bacteria named for Ag Lab microbiologist
Posted on June 2nd, 2004

Peoria – World-renown microbiologist Bob Hespell, who died in 1998, has been memorialized in a unique way: His fellow scientists at the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research have named a bacteria after him.

Hespellis is the name of a bacteria recently discovered by Ag Lab researchers who found it while cataloging microbial species in a pig manure pit near Peoria.

“Hespell was one of the pioneers in anaerobic microbe research, microbes that can live without oxygen. He was one of the few people studying such bacteria,” said Terry Whitehead, a microbiologist who worked with Hespell for years at the Peoria lab.

“I was recruited by Bob to come here, arriving from California in 1987,” he said.

Hespell’s work laid the groundwork for research that tries to find ways to diminish odors from swine waste and large-scale livestock facilities, said Whitehead.

Other research efforts assisted by Hespell’s work continues in the area of biofuels, he said. “Research continues on how we can get more ethanol out of the corn as well as finding a variety of sources to derive ethanol from,” said Whitehead.

Using the name of an outstanding researcher to brand a new organism is a way for scientists to honor their own, he said.

Hespell is already memorialized at Wildlife Prairie State Park. A longtime friend of park founder William Rutherford, Hespell left his estate to the park where a pavilion hosting meetings and banquets was named the Hespell Deck.