David Cantrill is Chief Botanist and Director of the National Herbarium of Victoria at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, Australia. Throughout his academic life he has undertaken extensive work across the southern hemisphere, particularly Antarctica, researching fossil floras from the Permian to early Cenozoic. His research into Antarctic biotas has concentrated on the systematic composition of floras, palaeoecology, the role of Antarctica in mediating climate and biogeographic patterns during Gondwana break up and developing present day patterns of austral plant distribution.