Williams, Emma V.
Job TitleMillennium Seed Bank Partnership Herbarium Liaison Officer
DepartmentHerbarium, Library, Art and Archives
SectionRegional Teams
Science Teams:
Joined Kew: 2002
Foreign Language(s): French (basic)
Qualifications & Appointments
BSc (Hons), Biology, Univ. Wales (Aberystwyth), 2000
MSc, Pure and Applied Plant and Fungal Taxonomy, Univ. Reading, 2001
Role
Identify and curate herbarium specimens collected by the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership.
Identify and curate herbarium specimens collected by the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership (MSBP) with a focus on the African, Arabian and North American flora. Responsible for maintaining the “MSBP Taxon Database” to ensure the species names for the seed collections follow the latest global checklists. Collect and process information from the Herbarium and Library to help in the planning of expeditions and targeting of species. Participate in MSBP fieldtrips. Liaise with and provide advice and training to MSBP staff and partner institutions on plant identification, herbarium specimen curation and seed collecting. Interest in the conservation of the Afromontane flora of East Africa, including seed banking, conservation assessments and species recovery.
Projects
- Collecting the Flora of Bulgaria
- Collecting the Flora of Kyrgyzstan
- Conservation of the Eastern Africa Afromontane Flora
- Ex situ Conservation of the Flora of the Caucasus
- Collection of Seeds of Native Plant Species from the Slovakian Flora for Ex Situ Conservation
- Guinea (Conakry): Developing botanical capacity, a National Herbarium and Red Data book
- MSB Programme in Australia
- Millennium Seed Bank Project in Jordan
- Millennium Seed Bank Project in Lebanon
- MSB partnership in Southern Africa (Botswana, Madagascar, Malawi)
- MSB Seed Banking Worldwide
- MSB partnership in West Africa (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali)
- Millennium Seed Bank Project in Namibia
(project completed 2010) - Millennium Seed Bank Project in South Africa
- A Seed Conservation Partnership between Tanzanian Seed Conservation Organisations and the RBG Kew Millennium Seed Bank Project
- Seeds of Success USA: Native Plant Materials for Conservation and Restoration
- MSB Enhancement Project Part 1A: Species Targeting (Project completed 2008)
- Seeds for Life
- UK Native Seed Hub
Selected Recent Publications
York E & Muthoka P. 2010 Seed banking in the Afroalpine region in Kenya, Scripta Bot. Belg. 46:506. AETFAT XIX-Madagascar