Mason Hale
Mason Ellsworth Hale Jr. (born September 23, 1928 in Winstead , Connecticut , † April 23, 1990 in Arlington , Virginia ) was an American botanist who specialized in lichen ( lichenology ). Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " Hale ".
Hale grew up on a farm and wanted to study languages first at Yale University , but then turned to botany and especially lichen under the influence of Alexander W. Evans (1868-1959). In 1953 he received his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin with John W. Thomson with a dissertation on ecology of lichen in Wisconsin. He then taught at the University of Wichita until 1955 and then at West Virginia University before joining the Smithsonian Institution in 1957 . He became a curator there and headed the Botany Department in 1968/69.
He made the lichen collection at the Smithsonian one of the largest in the world, and he himself collected over 80,000 specimens worldwide, including from 1980 to 1985 in Antarctica.
He used chemical methods to elucidate the relationships between lichens and created a library of electron microscope images of lichens. In addition to systematics (he was especially an expert on Parmelia ), he also studied the physiology of lichens, such as the nutrition of the fungi that live symbiotically in the lichens, and, for example, their growth by taking photographs of them in the same place over 20 years and their growth correlated with the measured microclimate. He often worked with the lichen researcher friend William Culberson (1929-2003), for example in a North American Lichen Checklist (1956).
He wrote several standard works on lichens: an introduction to the biology of lichens and an identification book of North American lichens.
Hale was active in the Washington Biologists Field Club from 1961.
Fonts
- Biology of Lichens, E. Arnold 1967, 1983
- How to Know the Lichens, Dubuque, Iowa: Brown 1969, 1979
- Growth, in Vernon Ahmadijian (Ed.), The Lichens, Elsevier 1973
- with Marietta Cole: The Lichens of California, University of California Press 1988
- Lichen Handbook: A Guide to the Lichens of Eastern North America, Smithsonian 1968
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hale, Mason |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hale, Mason Ellsworth; Hale, Mason E. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American botanist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 23, 1928 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Winstead (Connecticut) |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 23, 1990 |
| Place of death | Arlington, Virginia |