Dr. Richard Evans Schultes, regarded as the father of contemporary ethnobotany, carried out extensive field studies, particularly in the Amazon. He received numerous awards including the Cross of Boyaca, Columbia’s highest honor, and the annual GOld Medal of the World Wildlife Fund. In 1987 he received the prestigious Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, and in 1992 he was awarded the Linnean Gold Medal, the highest award a botanist can receive. Dr. Schultes was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Linnean Society of London, three Latin American Academies, the Academy of India, and the Third World Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Mark J. Plotkin has led the Amazon Conservation Team and guided its vision since 1996, when he co-founded the organization with his fellow conservationist, Liliana Madrigal. He is a renowned ethnobotanist who has spent almost three decades studying traditional plant use with traditional healers of tropical America.