Kew spokespeople

Tony Kirkham 

Head of the Arboretum

Tony Kirkham, and his team of over thirty staff and students, is responsible for managing the more than 14,000 trees in the living collection at RBG Kew. Tony has completed many expeditions with RBG Kew including collecting trips in East Asia with the aim of adding to RBG Kew’s tree collection and replacing trees that were lost in the storm of 1987.

Alongside this, Tony also manages to champion many other projects for RBG Kew, such as hardiness trials of the Wollemi Pine, the Australian ‘jurassic’ tree, to the UK Climate.

Tony has also made numerous television and radio appearances and has had two series aired on BBC Two in 2006 and 2008 entitled ‘The Trees that made Britain’.

For more information on Tony Kirkham please click here

Professor Monique Simmonds FRES 

Deputy Keeper of the Jodrell Laboratory and Head of the Sustainable Uses of Plants Group

Professor Monique Simmonds is Head of the Sustainable Uses of Plants group, which includes the Centre for Economic Botany and the Biological Interactions Section as well as heading up RBG Kew's Innovation Unit.

During her career at RBG Kew, Monique has and continues to co-ordinate research into the economic uses of plants and fungi, their potential as pharmaceutical and agrochemical leads, and as sources of sustainably harvested medicines. She has been involved in developing benefit-sharing strategies among community groups across the world, that involve NGOs, commercial and academic collaborators for research on medicinal and agrochemical plants and fungi.

Monique has gained extensive experience of working in developing countries, investigating the uses of plants for control of pests as well as the treatment of HIV and malaria. In addition, she has developed chemical authentication methods for use by companies, NGOs, government bodies and by field workers to check the quality of plant-derived products being sold as medicines, cosmetics and foods.

For more information about Professor Monique Simmonds please click here

Professor Mark Chase FRS 

Keeper of the Jodrell Laboratory

Widely recognised as a distinguished scientist in his field, Professor Mark Chase FRS has extensive experience in plant science and has held this role since August 2006. He has contributed to many publications and was lead author of the landmark 1993 paper on seed plant phylogenetics that began the molecular revolution leading to the reclassification of the flowering plants and many individual plant groups.

Professor Chase's areas of interest are plant classification and evolution and he has worked extensively with orchids. He can also speak about RBG Kew's plant DNA genetic research.

In 2009 he was awarded the Darwin-Wallace Medal of the Linnean Society of London, given every 50 years to a set of outstanding biologists.

For more information about Professor Chase please click here

Dave Simpson

Acting Director, Keeper of Herbarium, Library, Art & Archives

Professor Dave Simpson is Acting Keeper of the Herbarium, Library, Art and Archives, one the world's largest collections of dried plant and fungal specimens, together with a world-renowned library and its associated archives and art collections.

Dave's expertise is in plant taxonomy, plant classification and the use of preserved collections in botanical science. His research focuses on monocot plants, especially sedges (Cyperaceae), grasses (Poaceae) and related plant families worldwide. He also has expertise in Southeast Asian botany, particularly in Thailand and Indo-China. He has published or co-published 20 books and over 200 research articles and is Editor in Chief of Kew Bulletin, RBG Kew's flagship science journal.

He can give interviews on topics such as: Kew's Herbarium, taxonomy, managing biological collections, plant hunting, discovery of new plant species, and his specialism in SE Asian botany, grasses and sedges.
 

Professor Angela McFarlane 

Director of Public Engagement and Learning

Professor Angela McFarlane was appointed Director of Content and Learning at the RBG Kew in February 2008. She is on secondment to RBG Kew from the University of Bristol, where she retains her role as Professor in Education. Her work in technology enhanced education has given her international recognition as an expert in this area and she regularly contributes to masters and doctoral programmes at Bristol and beyond.

Professor McFarlane has a BSc and PhD in biological science and started her career as a science teacher. She then moved into the field of ICT in education becoming project director for the Homerton College IT Unit; followed by Director of the Homerton College, Cambridge Centre for Research in Educational ICT and Reader in Educational ICT and latterly a secondment as Director for Evidence and Practice for Becta.
 

Dr Paul Smith

Head of Kew's Millennium Seed Bank partnership

Dr Smith is Head of Kew's Seed Conservation Department and Leader of Kew's Millennium Seed Bank partnership - the world's most ambitious plant conservation initiative.

Paul is an expert in seed banking and a specialist in ecology and plant diversity in southern, central and eastern Africa. As well as co-ordinating and participating in seed-collecting activities in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Malawi and Madagascar, he has extensive experience in ecological surveying, botanical inventory, vegetation mapping and monitoring, including the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing techniques.

For more information on Dr Smith please click here

Andrew Jackson 

Head of Wakehurst Place

Andy Jackson has been the Head of Wakehurst Place since 2003 and specialises in the conservation of UK biodiversity, with a focus on the in situ management of fauna and flora on the Wakehurst Place estate.

Having originally trained at RBG Kew's School of Horticulture, he worked as the Conservation and Woodland Manager at Wakehurst, specialising in habitat conservation and species recovery programmes, such as the Plymouth Pear (Pyrus cordata), one of Britain’s rarest trees.

In 1995 he represented RBG Kew during the development and implementation of UK and European initiatives including the UK Biodiversity Steering Group, UK Biodiversity Action Plan and the Bern Convention.

For more information about Andrew Jackson please click here