Cornelius Herman ("Neil") Muller, born Müller, (July 22, 1909 – January 26, 1997) was an American botanist and ecologist who pioneered the study of allelopathy and oak classification. Personal life Müller was born in Collinsville, Illinois, but moved at an early age to Cuero, Texas, and was educated there. He was graduated with a BA in botany from the University of Texas in 1932, and an MA from the same institution in 1933. He first married Mary Elizabeth Taylor, but they divorced in 1936; he changed his name to Muller in the following year. After graduating from the University of Illinois in 1938 with a Ph.D. in botany, Muller worked for the Illinois Natural History Survey for one year and then for the US Department of Agriculture in various capacities from 1938 to 1945. Summers were usually spent on plant collecting trips to Mexico, the Southwest, and the southern United States. His work focused on vegetation studies in Texas and Mexico and most prominently on oaks. In 1939, Muller married Katherine Kinsel, also a botanist, who directed the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden from 1950-1973. She was a partner with her husband in much of his vegetation studies and oak collecting trips, sharing in the creation of the extensive field notes found in this collection. He and Katherine also collaborated on a publication about Jean-Louis Berlandier's plant collecting in Mexico in the 1820s. Muller died in Santa Barbara on January 26, 1997, at the age of 88. Professional career Muller was recognized internationally for his knowledge on oaks. His dissertation was based in the plant ecology field, which led to him describing numerous new species and successfully writing 10 publications through his botanical explorations while he was still in graduate school and over 100 in his entire 87 year career. From 1938 to 1942 Muller worked for the USDA Division of Plant Exploration and Introduction, naming and classifying plant specimens. As a result of this work, he published A Revision of the Genus Lycopersicon and The Central American Species of Quercus. During World War II, he worked for the Bureau of Plant Industry on the Special Guayule Research Project on a series of experiments on root development. His results were published in the USDA Technical Bulletin 923 entitled Root Development and Ecological Relations of Guayule. In 1945 he began teaching at the University of California, Santa Barbara (then known as Santa