James (Jamie) Shreeve is Deputy Editor in Chief of National Geographic. Before joining the Geographic staff in 2006, he was a freelance science writer and author specializing in human evolution and biology. His books include The Genome War (Knopf, 2004); The Neandertal Enigma: Solving the Mystery of Modern Human Origins (William Morrow, 1995); and Lucy's Child: The Discovery of a Human Ancestor (William Morrow, 1989, with Donald Johanson).

Mr. Shreeve received his B.A. in English from Brown University in 1973. A 1979 graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop, he contributed fiction to various literary magazines before turning to science writing. From 1983 to 1985, he was Public Information Director at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts and founding director of the MBL Science Writing Fellowship Program. He has been awarded fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Alicia Patterson Foundation, and the Knight Foundation. Mr. Shreeve lives in Bellport, N.Y., and Washington, D.C.