Founder of the Institute of Phytopathology. Phytopathology in Wageningen has a long history that goes back to 1906, the year that the Institute of Phytopathology was founded. In the early days the activities were mainly devoted to disease diagnosis and the identification of causal agents. Over the years, however, phytopathology gained ground as a scientific discipline and in the 1950s this gradually culminated in anoverarching discipline referred to as “plant protection”.