Cristián Samper (born September 25, 1965) is a Colombian-American tropical biologist and an international authority on conservation biology and environmental policy. Since 2012, he has served as President and CEO of WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society). He was acting secretary of the Smithsonian from 2007 to 2008, the first Latin American to hold the position. From 2003 to 2012, he was the Director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, the world's largest natural history collection. In April 2015, Dr. Samper was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.