Wesley Knapp is the Chief Botanist at NatureServe, a leading biodiversity conservation non-profit in the United States. NatureServe leverages the power of science, data, and technology to guide biodiversity conservation and stewardship. Wes has over 20 years of experience working in the NatureServe Network as a Botanist and Ecologist with both the Maryland and North Carolina Natural Heritage Programs. He has extensive field experience across much of the United States with additional fieldwork experience in Australia, Canada, and Central America. His research includes the first examination of the extinct plants of the United States and Canada, new plant species discoveries, and treatments of plant groups in various Floras and Manuals. He has also published two books including, Vascular Plants of Maryland, USA: A Comprehensive Account of the State’s Botanical Diversity which is freely available through the Smithsonian Scholarly Press. His research interests include identifying and preventing plant extinction events, describing undescribed plant species, systematics, ecology, and taxonomy. He has a B.S. from Catawba College, a M.S. from Delaware State University, and is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Alan Weakley’s lab. His work has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Scientific America.