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Randall was born in [[Burr Oak, Michigan]], on December 17, 1870. His family then moved to Ann Arbor, where he spent his formative years and most of his life. He graduated from the Ann Arbor High School (now [[Pioneer High School (Ann Arbor, Michigan)|Pioneer High School]]) in 1889, and then earned his bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Michigan in 1893.<ref name=faculty-history-project>{{cite web|last1=University of Michigan|title=Harrison McAllister Randall.|url=http://um2017.org/faculty-history/faculty/harrison-mcallister-randall|website=Faculty History Project|access-date=2 April 2015}}</ref> A year later he completed a master's degree, then spent a few years teaching in high schools in [[West Bay City]] and [[Saginaw]], living with his girlfriend Ida Muma who had a degree in [[classical studies]] from Michigan.<ref name="oral-history">{{cite web|last1=Dennison|first1=David M.|last2=King|first2=W. James|title=Oral History Transcript: Dr. Harrison M. Randall|url=http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/4840_1.html|website=American Institute of Physics|access-date=2 April 2015}}</ref>
On August 24, 1898, he married Ida, then in 1899 he returned to the University of Michigan to work as an instructor and finish his doctorate. He completed his PhD in physics in 1902, and immediately took a position on the faculty of the
In 1910 Randall moved abroad to work under Professor [[Friedrich Paschen]] at the [[University of Tübingen]]—55 years before Tübingen and Ann Arbor would become [[Twin towns and sister cities|sister cities]]. This was shortly after Paschen had discovered what is now called the Paschen series in the spectrum of hydrogen, and about 20 years after the discovery of what is now called [[Paschen's Law]] of electrical discharges. Randall said that he knew nothing about spectroscopy at the time and Paschen simply handed him a spectrometer and expected him to get to work—which he ultimately did. Even to the end of his life Randall considered Paschen his greatest mentor.<ref name="oral-history" />
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One of Randall's central changes was to spend more resources on theorists as well as experimentalists, including a controversial program in which theoretical physicists would get a sabbatical every two years to work with theoretical physicists in Europe. At the time most of the best theoretical physics was being done in Europe, and it was partly through Randall's leadership that top-notch theoretical physics came to the United States.<ref name="oral-history" />
Randall was very persuasive when it came to securing funding; despite resistance from deans and presidents he managed to add on several new faculty as well as commission the construction of the East Physics Building (which is now named Randall Laboratory in his honor).<ref name="faculty-history-project" /> The
==Career==
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Randall oversaw Michigan’s substantial growth in atomic physics and nuclear physics. In the mid-1930s he secured funding to build what was then the world's most energetic [[cyclotron]].
From 1917 to 1919 Randall was a researcher at the [[National Bureau of Standards]]. In 1925 Randall became vice-president of the [[American Association for the Advancement of Science]]. Randall was President of the [[American Physical Society]] in 1937, and remained
Harrison Randall died on November 10, 1969, at the age of 98.<ref>{{cite news|author=Bush, Larry|title=World Renowned Physicist Dies|newspaper=Ann Arbor News|date=11 November 1969|url=http://oldnews.aadl.org/node/83674}}</ref>
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