Aljos Farjon headed the temperate section of the herbarium at the Royal Botanic gardens, Kew 1996–2006. He has published 10 books and more than 120 papers mainly, but not exclusively, on conifers. He is a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, Chair of the Conifer Specialist Group of IUCN (the World Conservation Union) and a member of both the International Association for Plant Taxonomy and the Royal Horticultural Society’s Conifer Registration Advisory Committee.