News Published: 12 September 2024

After an extensive international search, the Missouri Botanical Garden has named international botanist and conservationist Dr. Lúcia G. Lohmann as the Garden’s next President and Director and George Engelmann Professor of Botany at Washington University in St. Louis. Lohmann will be the eighth president of the Garden and the first woman to hold the position.

“After a rigorous, international search, we are looking forward to introducing Dr. Lohmann to the St. Louis community,” said Michael Stern, Chair of the Garden’s Board of Trustees. “She is accomplished and engaging and will continue to elevate the Garden both as a cultural landmark and as a leader in science and conservation.”

Lohmann, currently Director of the University and Jepson Herbaria and Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, will step down from that role into her new role as Garden President and Director on Jan. 2, 2025.

Born in Brazil, Lohmann earned her undergraduate degree in biology from the University of São Paulo, where she documented the biodiversity of the Amazon Basin. She later earned a master’s and PhD degrees in Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where she studied the biogeography and evolutionary history of the trumpet-creeper plant family.

After receiving her PhD, Lohmann worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Garden’s Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development (CCSD) where she used specimens from the Garden’s globally renowned Herbarium and geospatial tools to address evolutionary, ecological, and conservation questions. Before her tenure at UC Berkeley, Lohmann held a faculty position in the Department of Botany of the University of São Paulo, where she remains as an Adjunct Professor. Her research focuses on neotropical biodiversity, with a special focus on the Amazon basin.

Lohmann is deeply involved in efforts to study and conserve biodiversity worldwide. In this context, she also serves as Executive Director of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) and President of the International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT).

“I relate deeply to the Garden’s mission ‘to discover and share knowledge about plants and their environment in order to preserve and enrich life,’ as this reflects my own purpose in life,” Lohmann said. “Assuming the presidency at the Garden is a homecoming for me, full circle. I lived around 300 feet from the Garden for eight years during graduate school and obtained an exceptional botanical education here.”

Lohmann will succeed the current Garden President Dr. Peter Wyse Jackson, who will transition to President Emeritus on Jan. 2. Wyse Jackson has served as the Garden’s president and director since 2010.