Dr. James E. Ackert

A Kansas Portrait

James Edward Ackert was born at Woosung, Illinois, August 31, 1879 son of Abram and Eva Wilder Ackert. Upon his graduation from Northern Illinois State Normal School in 1903 he attended the University of Illinois. He received his B.A. from that institution in 1909 as well as an M.A. in 1911 and a Ph.D. in 1913. Ackert joined the Kansas State University faculty in 1913 to teach zoology and parasitology, and on August 15, 1914 he married Florence M. Tanner of Aurora, Illinois.

By 1931 Dr. Ackert had been named the first dean of the graduate school, but his real claim to fame was his research and writing. At the time of his death on June 18, 1969, he could boast a list of 164 professional publications. As a researcher he carried out some of the first controlled experiments in America and virtually developed the field of experimental parasitology. His work on Vitamin A deficiency was important to human as well as animal health. He served on a Rockefeller team that developed a worldwide method of hookworm control.

Dr. Ackert took up golf at the age of 50 and became a familiar figure on the Manhattan golf courses well into his 80s. He even, with the help of his wife, wrote a college loyalty song that was used from 1915-1930. Ackert retired from K-State in 1950 but continued to serve as visiting professor at Sao Paulo University and the University of Brazil as well as the University of Chile at Santiago. Sao Paulo University even named a laboratory at the veterinary school after him.