Hugh Wynford Pritchard is Head of Comparative plant and Fungal Biology Department at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, UK. He is Officer and Executive Committee Member of the International Society for Seed Science (ISSS) and is currently a Trustee to the Society for Low Temperature Biology (SLTB). He holds honorary professorships with the Chinese Academy of Science and the University of Sussex, UK, and is Honorary Fellow of Writtle University College, UK. His research focuses on seed survival and germination. He has specific interests in the molecular basis of seed desiccation tolerance, patterns in the distribution of seed lifespan, ecological correlates of seed desiccation sensitivity and the biophysical changes in seeds (on drying and cooling) that confer storage stability. He use multispecies comparisons of the germination process to comprehend how niche preference during regeneration will be affected by climate change. He is Member of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa (ASSAf).
