Reginald Gordon Harris was born at Medford, Massachusetts, July 18, 1898. After receiving his B.S. from Brown University in 1918, he attended the Biological Laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor as a student and served as assistant in the nearby department of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. He then went on an Entomological Expedition to South America. In 1922, he attended the University of Paris as an American Field Service Fellow in Biology to study methods of reproduction of the fly, Miastor. A year later, Harris pursued his doctorate at Brown University. In August, 1923, he was elected acting Director of the Biological Laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor.
Between 1924 and 1927, Harris worked to expand Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in size and stature, by acquiring adjacent land, fund raising, and attracting top scientists for research. He established a Scientific Advisory Committee to examine the work of the Laboratory and to guide activities as a research center. Harris also formed a special Advisory Committee on General Physiology and Biophysics.
By 1931, Harris had become convinced that one of the greatest needs in science was collaboration among the biologists, physicists, chemists, and mathematicians. He envisioned gathering representatives of these fields at Cold Spring Harbor for a conference on specific topics in biology. His ambition was realized in 1933 at the First Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology.
In his twelve years as Director of CSHL, Harris transformed the Laboratory from a small school for biology undergraduate students to a prestigious institution for research, drawing a distinguished group of workers in biology each summer.
During his winters, Harris often traveled to Mexico, Central and South America, and North Africa to study the people and biological phenomena in those regions. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory and one of the corporations of the Bermuda Biological Laboratory.
Harris died of pneumonia on January 7, 1936 in Huntington, New York.