Harvey Monroe Hall

Studying plant taxonomy under W. L. Jepson at the University of California, Hall completed his doctoral dissertation, The Compositae of Southern California, in 1906.[3] He went on to be a professor of botany at the university and botanist for the agricultural experiment station. His early work focused on taxonomic studies of plants in California, and he added over 200,000 specimens to the herbarium. He resigned from his professorship in 1919, but continued to maintain an office and relationships in Berkeley.[4]

While professionally established, Hall went to work for ecologist Frederic Clements at the Carnegie Institution Division of Plant Sciences at Stanford University in 1919 in an effort to explore experimental methods of taxonomy.[4] The pair established methods for conducting reciprocal transplant experiments, whereas plants were moved and studied in the habitats of similar taxonomic species. These experiments provided methods for studying plant adaptation, but did not readily explain mechanisms of plant evolution.[5] In 1924, Hall began to work with geneticist, and friend, E. B. Babcock to look beyond ecological methods to genetics and cytology as experimental methods to explore taxonomic and phylogenetic relationships.[5] Hall left Clements group and started to assemble his own experimental team, hiring David Keck and William Hiesey in 1926 and Jens Clausen in 1931.

In 1928, Carnegie president John Merriam sent Hall to Europe for a year to study national parks. His report suggested the creation of natural reserves with national parks for the purpose of scientific study.[6]