ROBERT HARDING WHITTAKER

Robert Harding Whittaker (December 27, 1920–October 20, 1980) was a distinguished
American plant ecologist, active in the 1950s to the 1970s.

Born in Wichita, Kansas, he obtained a B.A. at Washburn Municipal College (now Washburn
University) in Topeka, Kansas, and, following military service, his Ph.D. at the University of
Illinois.

He held teaching and research positions at Washington State College in Hanford, Washington,
the Hanford National Laboratories (where he pioneered use of radioactive tracers in ecosystem
studies), Brooklyn College, University of California-Irvine, and, finally Cornell University.

Extremely productive, Whittaker was a leading proponent and developer of gradient analysis to
address questions in plant community ecology. He provided strong empirical evidence against
some ideas of vegetation development advocated by Frederic Clements. Whittaker was most
active in the areas of plant community analysis, succession, and productivity. "During his
lifetime Whittaker was a major innovator of methodologies of community analysis and a leader
in marshaling field data to document patterns in the composition, productivity and diversity of
land plant communities."[1] Thus Whittaker was innovative in both empirical data sampling
techniques as well as synthesizing more holistic theories.
He was the first to propose the five-kingdom taxonomic classification of the world's biota into
the Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista, and Monera in 1969. He also proposed the Whittaker
Biome Classification, which categorized biome-types upon two abiotic factors: temperature and
precipitation.

Whittaker was elected to the National Academy of Science in 1974, received the Ecological
Society of America's Eminent Ecologist Award in 1981, and was otherwise widely recognized
and honored. He collaborated with many other ecologists including George Woodwell
(Dartmouth), W. A. Niering, F. H. Bormann (Yale) and G. E. Likens (Cornell), 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 (now at Baylor University), Thomas Wentworth
(now at North Carolina State University), Owen Sholes (now at Assumption College), Mark
Wilson (now at Oregon State University), Linda Olsvig-Whittaker (now at the Israel Nature and
Parks Authority) and Kerry Woods (now at Bennington College).

Family
Whittaker married biochemist Clara Buehl (then a coworker at Hanford Laboratories) in 1952.
Their children are John Whittaker (b. 1953, now a Professor of Anthropology at Grinnell
College), Paul Whittaker (b. 1955, formerly an ecologist/entomologist; now an abstract artist and
photographer in Evanston, Illinois) and Carl Whittaker (b. 1957, a natural history illustrator and
professional chef in Ithaca, New York).

Clara was diagnosed with cancer in 1972; her health deteriorated and she died December 31,
1976. Whittaker married graduate student Linda Olsvig in 1979, but was himself diagnosed with
lung cancer; he died October 20, 1980.