Eastwood, Ruth
Job TitleCrop Wild Relative Project Co-ordinator
DepartmentSeed Conservation
SectionCollecting
Science Teams:
Joined Kew: 2007
Foreign Language(s): Spanish (Basic)
Qualifications & Appointments
Partnership Assistant, RBG Kew, 2009 - 2011
ENSCONET Data Assistant, RBG Kew, 2008 - 2009
Seed Information Database Assistant, RBG Kew, 2007-2008
MA Biological Sciences, Univ. Oxford, 2005
DPhil "Systematics of Andean Lupinus and the origin of Lupinus mutabilis" Univ. Oxford, 2006
Role
I co-ordinate Kew’s activities within the “Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change” project, otherwise known as the Crop Wild Relative (CWR) project and I participate in the Global Crop Diversity Trust management team for this project. Within Kew, I oversee the various aspects of the project including germination optimisation, botanical data collection, gap analysis of existing collections, seed collection, curation and redistribution of seed material and associated data. I manage and monitor Kew’s project progress ensuring delivery of milestones and prepare material for reports.
I am secretary to the Wakehurst Sustainability Team where I organise the monthly meetings, manage the Environmental Incidents and Complaints log, produce SUSWAK News and keep the Wakehurst Sustainability pages up-to-date.
Projects
- Biodiversity Advice to Government
- Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change
- European Native Seed Conservation Network (ENSCONET)
(project completed 2009) - European Native Seed Conservation Network (ENSCONET) Consortium
- Ensuring the survival of endangered plants in the Mediterranean - Mediterranean Seed Conservation Partnership (MAVA Project)
Selected Recent Publications
Drummond, C.S., Eastwood, R.J., Miotto, S.T.S. & Hughes, C.E. (2012) Multiple Continental Radiations and Correlates of Diversification in Lupinus (Leguminosae): Testing for Key Innovation with Incomplete Taxon Sampling. Systematic Biology doi:10.1093/sysbio/syr126
Eastwood, R.J., Müller, J.V., 2012. Achievements of the European Native Seed Conservation Network - ENSCONET, In Agrobiodiversity Conservation: Securing the Diversity of Crop Wild Relatives and Landraces. eds N. Maxted, B.V. Ford-Lloyd, S. Kell, J.M. Iriondo, E. Dulloo, J. Turok. CABI. pp 286-291
Godefroid, S., S. Rivière, Waldren, Steve, Boretos, Nikos, Eastwood, Ruth and Vanderborght, Thierry (2011). "To what extent are threatened European plant species conserved in seed banks?" Biological Conservation 144(5): 1494-1498.
- Eastwood, R.J., Drummond, C.S., Schifino-Whittmann, M.T. and Hughes C.E. (2008). Diversity and evolutionary history of lupins – insights from new phylogenies. In: Palta, J.A. and Berger, J.B. (eds.) Lupins for Health and Wealth. Proceedings of the 12th International Lupin Conference,14-18 September, 2008, Freemantle, Western Australia. pp. 346-354.
- Eastwood, R.J. & Hughes, C.E. (2008). Origins of domestication of Lupinus mutabilis in the Andes. In: Palta, J.A. and Berger, J.B. (eds.) Lupins for Health and Wealth. Proceedings of the 12th International Lupin Conference, 14-18 September, 2008, Freemantle, Western Australia. pp. 373-379.
- Liu, K., Eastwood, R.J., Flynn, S., Turner, R.M., and Stuppy, W.H. (2008).
Seed Information Database (release 7.1, May 2008) http://www.kew.org/data/sid
Selected Earlier Publications
Hughes, C. & Eastwood, R. (2006). Island radiation on a continental scale: Exceptional rates of plant diversification after uplift of the Andes Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 103 (27): pp 10334-10339. doi:10.1073/pnas.0601928103.
