James Lucas, Ph.D.

James is the Conservation Field Program Manager at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. He holds a BS in Biology from Colby College in Maine and a PhD in ecology from Washington University in St. Louis, with a dissertation focused on the ethnobotany of plant-based fiber arts traditions in Nepal, Vietnam, Mexico, and the West Indies.  Since 2014, James has conducted fieldwork around the world to conserve threatened plant species, including the sohisika (Schizolaena tampoketsana) in Madagascar, Pyne’s ground plum (Astragalus bibullatus) in Tennessee, and lacebark (Lagetta lagetto) in Jamaica.

James is originally from southern Nevada, though he has previously lived in New England, the Pacific Northwest, Missouri, Virginia, and Saipan. In his free time he enjoys cycling, foraging mushrooms and pawpaws, papermaking, and folding origami.  Unsurprisingly, James’s favorite plant at the Garden is the paperbush (Edgeworthia chrysantha ‘Winter Gold’), a deciduous ornamental shrub with showy yellow flowers that–true to its common name–is still used in eastern Asia to make paper.