Quentin Cronk has taken the helm as Director of the UBC Botanical
Garden and Centre for Plant Research.
Cronk, who comes to UBC from the Royal Botanic Garden at
the University of Edinburgh, is internationally renowned for
his research on the conservation of rare plants on oceanic
islands, flower form, and plants in the African Violet and
Ginger families.
He has collaborated with researchers in universities and
botanical gardens in Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and the
United States, and his plant exploration expeditions have
taken him to Morocco, Indonesia, Philippines, Mauritius and
the island of St. Helena in the south Atlantic, where he worked
to save the island’s endangered flora.
Cronk was educated at Cambridge University and his most
recent research work in Edinburgh has been focused on understanding
the evolution and biodiversity of vascular plants.
Cronk says botanical gardens like UBC’s have an important
role to play in the 21st century.
"UBC Botanical Garden is an internationally significant
centre for its collection of Asian plants and it has an important
role to play in developing plant research in Canada,"
said Cronk. "Botany is entering one of the most exciting
phases of its history and the knowledge we are accruing from
genome sequencing has to be applied in practical settings
and then communicated to the public."
Cronk takes over from Bruce Macdonald who retired as the
garden’s director in April 2002.
UBC’s Botanical Garden is the oldest university garden in
Canada and contains a worldwide collection of plants from
temperate climates.
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