Dr. David Lorence occupies the B. Evans Chair of Botany and came to the National Tropical Botanical Garden in 1987. He is the Senior Research Botanist for the organization. Research specialties are systematic studies of tropical plants, floristics, and invasive plant species. His systematic research focuses on Pacific and neotropical members of the large and diverse Rubiaceae family, which includes coffee, quinine, and gardenias. He also studies the Monimiaceae family of the Malagasy region and tropical America.

Dr. Lorence's floristic research includes a multi-institutional collaboration on a "Vascular Flora of the Marquesas Islands," contributing partial treatment of the Rubiaceae for "Flora Mesoamericana," and participating in a project to develop an annotated checklist of the plants of Pohnpei and Kosrae. His research on invasive species includes restoration efforts targeting Hawaiian dryland forest and exotic species invasion in Mauritius wet forest communities. He has carried out extensive fieldwork in Hawaii, Samoa, the Marquesas, Micronesia, New Caledonia, Mexico, and the Malagasy region.

Dr. Lorence directs the research library and herbarium at headquarters, curates NTBG's collections of Rubiaceae and of Zingiberales, and serves on the board of the Heliconia Society International.

He is editor of Allertonia, NTBG's series of occasional papers.