As Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Stephen Blackmore leads a world class research institute that is also a major public attraction and was voted by its peers to be one of the four top botanic gardens in the world. With living and preserved plant collections from some 160 countries, RBGE is a truly international organisation carrying out projects in over 40 countries. He holds Honorary Professorships at the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow and at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Kunming Institute of Botany, serves on the Boards of Botanic Gardens Conservation International, Edinburgh College of Art, the Little Sparta Trust and the Seychelles Islands Foundation and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Since his schooldays in Hong Kong he has been fascinated with China where most of his current research takes place.