Carlos E. Chardón

Who was Carlos E. Chardón?

Carlos Eugenio Chardón Palacios, D.Sc., D.Litt, was the first Puerto Rican mycologist, a high-ranking official in government on agriculture during the 1920s, the first Puerto Rican appointed as Chancellor of the University of Puerto Rico, and the head of the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration in the mid-to late 1930s during the Great Depression. He was also known as "the Father of Mycology in Puerto Rico". He discovered that the aphid "Aphis maidis" was the vector of the sugar cane Mosaic virus. Mosaic viruses are plant viruses.

In the 1920s, he was appointed as Commissioner of Agriculture and Labor. In that position, he traveled in Central and South America, aiding agricultural programs in Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia and Dominican Republic. After serving as a university administrator and head of a major agency, he returned to his academic work in the fields of land use and agriculture in 1940 and later. He published several books on his studies in Puerto Rico and Latin America.