Goodspeed, T. H. (Thomas Harper), 1887-1966

Biography

Thomas Harper Goodspeed, botanist and cytologist, was born in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1887. In 1909, he received the A.B. degree from Brown University, and in 1912, was awarded the Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. He joined the faculty of the Botany Department at Berkeley in 1912, and in 1928 became a full professor. From 1926 to 1934, Goodspeed was curator of the Botanical Gardens, and served as its director from 1934 until his retirement from the University in 1957.

Goodspeed devoted the bulk of his professional career to a study of the cytology and taxonomy of the genus Nicotiana (tobacco), its interspecific hybridization, its distribution in western South America and the Australian sub-continent, and its response to high frequency radiation such as x-rays.

From the guide to the Thomas Harper Goodspeed: Correspondence Relating to Research on Tobacco, 1926-1950, (The Bancroft Library)