E. Yale Dawson

Elmer Yale Dawson (March 31, 1918 – June 22, 1966) was an American botanist.

Dawson was born in on March 31, 1918 in Creston, Iowa to Elmer Clarence Dawson and Mabelle Davidson Campbell.

In 1940 he received his bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and in 1942 his Ph.D. from the same institution. After serving in the United States Army, he became a research associate for the Allan Hancock Foundation, a division of University of Southern California for 10 years, 1945 to 1955. He was appointed professor of biology at USC in 1956, a position that he held till 1964. From 1958 to 1962 he worked as research director of the Beaudette Foundation, a division of Biological research. He became a director of the San Diego Natural History Museum in 1964, and the same year was promoted to secretary of the Americas for the Charles Darwin Foundation, located on the Galápagos Islands.

He drowned on June 22, 1966, while diving for seaweed in the Red Sea.

He devoted his life to a study of benthic marine algae, particularly Rhodophyta that grow in tropical and subtropical Pacific. He published books about algae, cacti, and succulents.