Chris Thorogood

Chris Thorogood is a botanist and lecturer at the University of Oxford, where he holds the position of Deputy Director and Head of Science at Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum, and a Visiting Professor at the University of the Philippines. His research focuses on the evolution of parasitic and carnivorous plants, taxonomic diversity in biodiversity hotspots around the world, and biomimetics - exploring the potential applications of plants in technology. An author and broadcaster, he makes regular appearances on TV and radio and is also an award-winning botanical illustrator and wildlife artist. Obsessed with plants, he is on a mission to make us see them differently, and realize how we, they, and our planet, are all connected. His new book is called Pathless Forest: The Quest to Save the World’s Largest Flowers. It’s an inspirational, mind-bending story of his obsession to protect and save Rafflesia, the vanishingly rare, metre-wide, monstrously beautiful, stinking ‘corpse flowers’ that have captured his imagination since his childhood.