In 1870, Charles Edwin Bessey became professor of botany at the Iowa Agricultural College (ISU) and left in 1884, to become a professor of botany at the University of Nebraska and was head dean until 1909.

In 1887, Bessey and Seaman Knapp also on the faculty at Iowa Agricultural College wrote the Hatch Act which established the national system of agricultural research experiment stations. In 1911, Bessey served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.