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Cristián Samper

Cristián Samper
Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuck 2008 -2.jpg
Cristián Samper 2008
Born (1965-09-25) September 25, 1965 (age 52)
San José, Costa Rica
Nationality Colombian-American
Citizenship Colombia, United States
Alma mater University of the Andes (B.Sc.)
Harvard University (M.Sc., Ph.D.)
Awards Derek Bok Public Service Prize (1992)
Order of San Carlos (2014)
Scientific career
Fields Biology
Institutions Wildlife Conservation Society (2012-present)
National Museum of Natural History (2003-2012)
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (2001-2003)
Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute (1995-2001)

Cristián Samper (born September 25, 1965) is a Colombian-American tropical biologist and an international authority on conservation biology and environmental policy. Since 2012, he has served as President and CEO of WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society). He was acting secretary of the Smithsonian from 2007 to 2008, the first Latin American to hold the position. From 2003 to 2012, he was the Director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, the world's largest natural history collection. In April 2015, Dr. Samper was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Samper was born on September 25, 1965 in San José, Costa Rica, the youngest child of Armando Samper Gnecco, an Agronomist and Economist from Colombia, and Jean Kutschbach, an American from New York State. He was raised in Colombia, the country of his father, Armando Samper, from one year of age. His other siblings were Marta, Belén, and Mario.

Samper graduated in 1987 from the University of the Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, with a B.Sc. in Biology. He then moved to the United States to attend Harvard University, where he graduated in 1989 with a M.Sc., and received his Ph.D. in Biology in 1992 with his dissertation Natural disturbance and plant establishment in an Andean cloud forest.


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