David Rae

David is Chairman of the Science Committee, the Awards Committee and the Bursaries Committee, and a member of the Horticulture Board and the Science Committee. He is the Director of the Stanley Smith (UK) Horticultural Trust and Chairman of the Sibbald Trust. He sits on the Boards of National Tropical Botanical Garden, Hawaii, St Andrews Botanic Garden and Mount Stuart Trust, Isle of Bute. He also sits on advisory committees for the University of Dundee Botanic Garden, Little Sparta Trust and Borde Hill.

He graduated with a BSc in Horticulture from the University of Bath in 1978 and joined the staff of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh as a lecturer, becoming Director of Horticulture and Learning 2000–2014.

David is a frequent conference speaker. He has undertaken fieldwork or projects in more than 20 countries and has published more than 50 papers. In 2008, he was awarded the Scottish Horticultural Medal and in 2014 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and awarded an OBE.