Thomas Harper Goodspeed (17 May 1887 Hartford, Connecticut - 17 May 1966 Calistoga California) was a botanist specializing in the genetics of species Nicotiana.
Under the direction of Goodspeed and University of California landscape architect, John William Gregg, the garden was moved from its location on the central campus to its current site in Strawberry Canyon in the hills above the campus.
[2]: 25, 31 As director of the UCBG, Goodspeed led several plant hunting expeditions to the Andes of Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay.
He obtained a substantial collection of Nicotiana during these expeditions, which were then assembled at the Botanical Garden for further study.
[3] During World War I Goodspeed, along with desert rubber expert and fellow Berkeley botanist, Harvey Monroe Hall, worked for the United States' Western strategic plants surveys for native sources of rubber.