David Alan Neill

David Alan Neill is a Professor in the Department of Life Sciences at Universidad Estatal Amazónica in Puyo, Ecuador, a position he has held since March 2012. Previously, he served as Curator at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, Missouri from 1985 to 2010. His academic background includes a Ph.D. in Biology from Washington University in St. Louis (1980-1984) and a B.S. in Biology from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington (1978-1980).

Neill is a specialist in Amazonian plant taxonomy and tropical forest ecology, with extensive fieldwork across Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. His research focuses on botanical inventories, plant systematics (particularly Araliaceae and Magnoliaceae families), and ecological studies of Amazonian tree communities. He has made significant contributions to documenting Neotropical flora, including the description of numerous new species from the Cordillera del Cóndor region.

His recent scholarly output demonstrates a strong focus on understanding Amazonian forest dynamics, tree diversity patterns, and the impacts of environmental factors on forest composition. Through collaborative international research projects, he has contributed to large-scale studies examining long-term ecological changes, hydrological influences on forest structure, and the biogeography of Neotropical plant species. His work frequently appears in high-impact journals including Nature, Science, and Global Ecology and Biogeography.

Neill has received research funding from the National Science Foundation for the Botanical Inventory of the Cordillera del Cóndor Region of Ecuador and Peru (2004-2007). He is an active member of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists since 2005. His research has involved extensive collaboration with international teams studying Amazonian biodiversity, often working alongside major research institutions and contributing to large-scale botanical surveys across multiple countries in Latin America.