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.
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.
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.
He's made substantial contributions to the field including his more prominent paper on "The Role of Chemical Inhibition in Vegetation Composition" in 1966, which paved the way for the study of allelopathy.
[4] He highlighted the importance of the influence of these organisms that produce water-soluble toxins, which restrict herb development on ecosystem composition.
In addition to his teaching duties during his years at UCSB, Muller conducted numerous research studies, funded partly by four National Science Foundation grants, on allelopathic mechanisms in California plant communities and systematics and evolution of the species Quercus.
That is described as follows: "A smooth face of soil is cut through the plant axis vertically to sufficient breadth and depth to insure inclusion of the farthest ramifications of the root system in the plane of the bisection.
Horizontal and perpendicular lines are marked off on this face with cord, the interval suited to the size of the root system.