Editor-in-Chief

Steven Penfield - John Innes Centre, UK

Steven Penfield is the Building Robustness in Crops (BRiC) Programme Leader at the John Innes Centre. The Penfield group works to understand how weather and climate affect plant reproductive development and seed quality. They are especially interested in the effects of temperature on crop yields, seed quality and seedling establishment. Their work uses crop species from the Brassica family, especially oilseed rape (canola) and vegetable Brassicas, as well as model species such as Arabidopsis thaliana. In this way they aim to understand precise mechanisms by which weather and climate affect crop performance, and consider strategies for increasing crop resilience, for instance using conventional plant breeding or genome editing techniques.

Advisory Member

Henk Hilhorst - Wageningen University of Research, The Netherlands

Henk Hilhorst has been a plant physiologist for more than 40 years, specializing in seed biology and -technology. He has served the journal for more than 25 years as Associate-Editor and Editor-in-Chief. He retired from Wageningen University, The Netherlands, in 2021 and is now working with the University of Cape Town, South-Africa, on so-called resurrection plants. These plants share many similarities with seeds in coping with severe drought. Henk is still affiliated with the journal in an advisory role.

Associate Editors

Roberto Benech-Arnold - University of Buenos Aires, Argentina

Roberto Benech-Arnold is Professor of Crop Production and Head of the Undergraduate Agronomy Program at the University of Buenos Aires. His main research interests are on molecular and genetic aspects of seed dormancy and germination but the aim is to translate results into the field. Indeed, most of his work reaches the seed and the malting industry, and the results adopted to generate new technological solutions to agricultural problems.

Oliver Leprince - Institut de Recherche en Horticulture et Semence, France

Olivier Leprince is a Professor of Plant Physiology at l’Institut Agro – Rennes Angers and team leader within the Research Institute for Horticulture and Seeds, Angers, France. He is coordinating a MSc international program on seeds and plant propagation. Olivier focusses on how abiotic stress during seed development impacts the acquisition of longevity and regulatory mechanisms controlling seed germination and seedling establishment.

Eiji Nambara - University of Toronto, UK

Eiji Nambara is a professor at the Department of Cell Systems Biology, University of Toronto. His lab has studied about metabolism and transport of abscisic acid. He is interested in plant adaptive responses to environmental changes in seeds and seedlings.

Mark Ooi - University of New South Wales, Australia

Mark is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Ecosystem Science, part of the School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia. His research interests include fire and plant (particularly seed) ecology. A lot of his work is focused on understanding the mechanistic responses of plant populations to the fire regime and the effects of climate change.

Costas A. Thanos - National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece

Costas Thanos is a Professor Emeritus of Plant Physiology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He is the head of the NKUA Seed Bank, former President of the Hellenic Botanical Society (2010-2016) and has been an Associate Editor of Seed Science Research since 2010. His main research interests include: Ecophysiology of Seed Germination and Seedling Establishment; Postfire Regeneration of Mediterranean Vegetation; Ex situ Plant Conservation and Seed Banks; In situ Conservation of Plants and Habitats; Theophrastus and the History of Plant Science.

Editorial Board

Phil Allen

Dr. Phil Allen is a Professor of Landscape Management at Brigham Young University. In addition to significant undergraduate teaching assignments, he conducts research focused on seed performance under adverse conditions. He has published 90 articles in books, journals, and internet outlets. Current research projects include the conservation and restoration of sagebrush ecosystems, seed ecophysiology of native plants, and landscape alternatives to mowed turfgrass lawns.

Jose M. Barrero - CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Australia

Jose completed his PhD in the Miguel Hernandez University, Spain, where he worked on leaf development and on salt-resistance using the model plant Arabidopsis. He came to Australia in 2006 to join the CSIRO, focusing on seed biology topics such as the molecular control of seed dormancy and germination in a variety of crop species including wheat, barley and canola. Currently Jose is leading the Legume Engineering Team, within CSIRO Agriculture and Food, where he is developing GM cowpeas with in-built protection against insects and with enhanced photosynthetic capacity.

Angelino Carta - University of Pisa, Italy

Angelino is a botanist with broad interest in the macroevolution, biogeography, and reproductive biology of vascular plants, with a special focus on regeneration strategies from seeds. His research combines laboratory experimental approaches with phylogenetic comparative modelling to shed light on multiple topics, from fundamental science such as seed evolutionary ecology to applied research like seed longevity and seed-based conservation policies.

Françoise Corbineau - Université Pierre et Marie Curie, France

After a Ph.D in Plant Physiology, Françoise Corbineau was nominated Research Scientist in CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research) in 1979, and then Associate Professor (1990) and Professor (1994) in the University Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris)(actually Sorbonne-Université in Paris). Emeritus Professor of Sorbonne-Université from 2020, she is a member of the French Academy of Agriculture from 2012.

Gerhard Leubner - Royal Holloway University of London, UK

Prof Gerhard Leubner (GL), Chair of Plant Biochemistry at Royal Holloway University of London (RHUL), Head of RHUL's Seed Science and Technology Group has more than 25 years’ research experience in seed germination, dormancy, longevity and seedling establishment of crop, weed and wild species. His research group aims to understand the molecular basis underlying seed dormancy, longevity and germination to be able to improve seed quality and seedling performance of horticultural and agricultural crops in a changing climate.

Zhimin Liu - Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Liu, Zhimin is a professor at the Shenyang Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research interests focus on dune ecosystem restoration and seed ecology. He attempts to explain the mechanism of seed availability in the dune ecosystem, and to reveal the reproductive strategies of psammophytes by studying canopy seed bank, myxospermy, seed morphology, soil seed bank, seed germination and seed dispersal by wind.

Kazumi Nakabayashi - Royal Holloway University of London, UK

Kazumi Nakabayashi is a Research associate in Royal Holloway University of London interested in the mechanisms of seed dormancy and germination in response to environment in various crop and weed species.

Krystyna Oracz - Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland

Hugh Pritchard - Royal Botanic Gardens, UK