About Stephen Hopper

Professor Stephen Hopper is the 14th Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

He is a plant conservation biologist, best known for pioneering research leading to positive conservation outcomes in south-west Australia (one of the few temperate-zone global biodiversity hotspots) and for the collaborative description of 300 new plant taxa (eucalypts, orchids, and the kangaroo paw family Haemodoraceae).

Professor Stephen Hopper joined Kew in October 2006, and has led the development of a forward 10 year Breathing Planet Programme for Kew and its global partners. This collaborative Programme aims to make an urgent and necessary step change in the application of science-based plant diversity solutions towards sustainable living and a reasonable quality of life, in the face of accelerating climate change and the loss of biodiversity.