- Robert Whittaker
Robert Harding Whittaker (1920–1980) was an American
vegetation ecologist , active in the 1950s to the 1970s.Born in
Wichita, Kansas , he obtained aB.A. at Washburn Municipal College (nowWashburn University ) inTopeka, Kansas , and, followingmilitary service , hisPh.D. at theUniversity of Illinois .He held teaching and research positions at
Washington State College in Hanford, Washington, the Hanford National Laboratories (where he pioneered use ofradioactive tracer s inecosystem studies),Brooklyn College , University of California-Irvine, and, finallyCornell University .Extremely productive, Whittaker was a leading proponent and developer of
gradient analysis to address questions in plantcommunity ecology . He provided strong empirical evidence against some ideas of vegetation development advocated byFrederic Clements . Whittaker was most active in the areas of plant community analysis, succession, and productivity.He also first proposed the
five-kingdom taxonomic classification of the world's biota into theAnimalia ,Plantae ,Fungi ,Protista , andMonera .Whittaker was elected to the
National Academy of Science in 1974, received theEcological Society of America 'sEminent Ecologist Award in 1980, and was otherwise widely recognized and honored. He collaborated with many other ecologists, and was particularly active in cultivating international collaborations.Ph.D. Students
Ecologists completing Ph.D.s under Whittaker include Walter Westman, Robert Peet (now at University of North Carolina), Susan Bratton, Thomas Wentworth (now at
North Carolina State University ), Owen Sholes, Mark Wilson (now atOregon State University ), Linda Olsvig Whittaker and Kerry Woods.References
*Robert H. Whittaker "Communities and Ecosystems", Macmillan, 1975. ISBN 0-02-427390-2
*Robert H. Whittaker(Ed), "Classification of Plant Communities, 1978 (Handbook of Vegetation Science)", Kluwer Academic Publishers, ISBN 90-6193-566-0External links
* [http://www.springerlink.com/content/k8j3319013585v28/ Robert H. Whittaker (1920–1980): The man and his work] List of works
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