William Austin Cannon

Born in Washington, Michigan, in 1870, he studied at Stanford and Columbia and earned his PhD in 1901. Early in his career he investigated plant hybrids, and a later biographical source credits him as an early scientist to suggest a role for chromosomes in heredity.

He is best known for his work with the Carnegie Institution's Desert Laboratory in Tucson, where he became its first resident investigator in 1903. There he pioneered studies of root systems, plant water use, and the physiological ecology of desert plants, helping turn careful field observation into a stronger scientific approach to desert ecology.

His interests reached well beyond Arizona. He carried out comparative research in places including Algeria, South Africa, Namibia, Australia, and Mexico, publishing books and papers on arid-land vegetation and plant life in harsh environments. William Austin Cannon died in Palo Alto, California, in 1958.