Dr Judy West and Dr Zoe Knapp ‘The Role of the ANBG in Contributing to the Global Strategy'

Judy West, Executive Director of the ANBG, and Zoe Knapp of Parks Australia, will provide an overview of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation.

Dr Judy West, Executive Director ANBG has research interests that centre on plant systematics of Australian plants, particularly relating to morphological and breeding system evidence in combination with molecular data. She has a very keen interest in widely disseminating the results of our taxonomic research and have focused on facilitating incorporation of this knowledge into interactive identification packages of nationally significant groups,such as eucalypts, legumes, grevilleas and orchids, as well as tropical rainforest plants. Judy also takes an active interest in applications of biological collections data and identifying opportunities to value add to the herbarium collection.

Dr Zoe Knapp works in the Parks Australia Division with the Department of the Environment. She has a background in environmental science and consulting, including international positions as a visiting scholar at Sweet Briar College, Virginia, USA, postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Institution, USA, and intern at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, UK. Zoë completed her PhD in 2006 at the University of Melbourne, Australia, which focused onthe biology and reintroduction of threatened terrestrial orchids. During this time, she was also employed as an Orchid Research Officer at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, assisting with a national Banksia Award winning program to propagate threatened orchids for reintroduction.