Peter Crane (1954-)

Previously at the Chicago Field Museum, Professor Sir Peter Crane became Director of Kew in 1999. He left in September 2006 to return to full-time academic work at the University of Chicago, having given us ‘seven years of superb scientific leadership complemented by great energy’.

He successfully steered the Gardens through a period of great change and development. New works at Kew included the Davies Alpine House and the Wolfson Wing of the Jodrell Laboratory, and work started on the extension to the Herbarium and Library. The Orangery and Nash Conservatory were restored and Climbers & Creepers opened at Kew. At Wakehurst Place, the restaurant facilities were rebuilt and a new Visitor Centre opened. Scientific contributions also increased and a huge festival programme was offered. Kew and Wakehurst came to be enjoyed by almost two million visitors a year.

Crane is an internationally respected researcher in palaeobotany, studying fossilised pollen, flowers and leaves in order to understand the evolutionary history of plants. He is shown holding a 45 million-year-old fossil birch leaf (Betula leopoldae) and a twig from a modern descendant (Betula alleghaniensis).

Changes to DNA sequences accumulate as species evolve and become distinct. Comparing the changes in different species indicates the order in which they diverged. However, the rate of DNA change is unsteady, and so to calibrate it in geological time, we need hard evidence from the fossil record. By comparing the evolutionary relationships suggested by a variety of methods, we can gain a better understanding of evolutionary history.

Knighted 2004
Fellow of the Royal Society 1998

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