What’s in a name? Bloom left cosmology -- for plants, of course

Arnold Bloom has a last name that fits him as naturally as roots in the soil.

A distinguished professor in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, Bloom has a last name that is an aptronym -- a name perfectly suited to his profession or personality. He is among 10 Aggies featured in a series about people who have apt names.

Bloom studies how plants eat, breathe and transpire, but his science reaches far beyond observation. He examines how plants cope with stress such as chilling injury, water scarcity and nutrient imbalance, and how they adapt to rising carbon dioxide levels. His work focuses on how plants balance the energy gained through photosynthesis with the nutrients absorbed from the soil, particularly nitrogen.

Bloom’s discoveries challenge the conventional belief that plants waste energy through photorespiration. Instead, he sees his work as revealing how this process generates compounds that power important reactions such as nitrate assimilation. His findings help explain how plants maintain food quality in a changing climate.

Despite his name, Bloom’s route to plant sciences was light-years away from being predestined. As an undergraduate, he studied physics and cosmology, but jobs in those fields were scarce. So, he accepted a position in a biophysics lab “because I didn’t know better,” he quipped. Encouraged by a mentor who had once helped map the genetic code, Bloom entered graduate school in botany without ever having taken a biology course.

Today, he introduces himself as “Bloom, the Botanist.” For someone whose curiosity first reached for the stars, it seems fitting that he found his purpose helping the world understand the blooms around them.

More aptly named Aggies

From research labs to classrooms and clinics, some Aggies have stories reminding us that, sometimes, the name really does fit.

• Read about nine more Aggies with aptronyms here, where this story about Arnold Bloom was first published.
• Know someone with an aptronym? Fill out this quick survey to be contacted for a feature in this series.