Hallé, Francis 1938–

PERSONAL: Born April 15, 1938, in France; son of Pierre (an agronomist) and Françoise (Dauchez) Hallé; married Odile Guépin, 1962. children: André, Isabelle, Ronan, Joëlle. Education: Attended Sorbonne, University of Paris.

ADDRESSES: Home—109 avenue de Lodève, 34070 Montpellier, France. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Orstom, Abidjan, Ivory Coast, botanist, 1960–68; University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France, professor, 1972–99; botanist and writer, 1999–. Biotrop, team leader in Bogor, Indonesia, 1978–80. Military service: Served in military force in Abidjan, 1966.

WRITINGS:

Tropical Trees and Forests, Springer Verlag (New York, NY), 1978.

Un monde sans hiver, Editions du Seuil (Paris, France), 1993.

Eloge de la plante, pour une nouvelle biologie, Editions du Seuil (Paris, France), 1999, translation by David Lee published as In Praise of Plants, Timber Press (Portland, OR), 2002.

Le radeau des cimes, J. C. Lattès (Paris, France), 2000.

Authors work has been translated into Spanish.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Architecture des plantes; research on the botany and canopies of tropical rain forests.

SIDELIGHTS: Francis Hallé told CA: "Being a scientist, I like to address big questions, research them for years, then produce a synthesis, publish it, and give it to a large audience. What sort of big questions? Here are three examples. Are plants really inferior to animals? On this question I published the book In Praise of Plants. Why are tropical countries economically poor? On this question, I wrote Un monde sans hiver, in complete disagreement with Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel. Why do plants, and particularly trees, grow the way they do? Why do they have the form they have? On this problem, I'm presently writing Architecture des plantes."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 1, 2002, Alice Joyce, review of In Praise of Plants, p. 33.

Quarterly Review of Biology, June, 2003, Terry R. Webster, review of In Praise of Plants, p. 231.