W. John Kress

Kress is currently a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a non-profit with the goal of promotion of science and defending scientific freedom. Members play an active role in advocacy for a future with science. Additionally, since 1997 he has held the seat as Executive Director of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation. He has been appointed as an Adjunct Professor of Biology at George Mason University in Virginia, at George Washington University in Washington, DC, and at Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Yunnan.

Kress is now the vice-president of science at the National Museum of Natural History, where he formerly held positions of Curator and Chairman of the Department of Botany. Kress worked formerly as the director of research at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Florida from 1984 to 1988.

Kress received his education at Harvard University (B.A.,1975) and Duke University (Ph.D., 1981), studying tropical biology, plant systematics, pollination ecology, and ethnobotany.

Walter John Emil Kress (born Illinois, 4 March 1951) is an American botanist and the vice-president for science at the National Museum of Natural History. He currently holds the appointment (2010) as the Director of the Consortium for Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet at the Smithsonian and is the former Executive Director of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation.