The National Seed Bank

Dr Alyssa Weinstein

Alyssa is the National Seed Bank Manager and strategically shapes the work program to address plant conservation priorities, ensuring Australia’s flora is safeguarded for future generations. She fosters the development of new partnerships and projects, and enjoys leading the enthusiastic seed bank team to build capacity, generate new knowledge, and support biodiversity conservation. Alyssa is passionate about plants, knowledge sharing, and improving biodiversity governance.

Tom North

Tom is the Curator at the National Seed Bank at the ANBG. Tom leads the collecting program, prioritising species to collect from the wild and coordinating field expeditions. Tom has been involved in seed banking with both the horticultural and native plant conservation and research industries since 1997. His interests include the use of seed banks as a tool for better ex situ conservation of native species and to facilitate restoration and recovery programs across threatened ecological communities.

Dr Gemma Hoyle

Gemma is a seed scientist responsible for establishment and delivery of conservation research projects, working closely with colleagues across the Australian Seed Bank Partnership, Parks Australia, the ANBG and external partners. Having previously worked at the Millennium Seed Bank, Kew, in the UK, Gemma uses the National Seed Bank’s unique collections to build novel research projects focused on seed germination, dormancy and longevity to improve the management and conservation of Australia's native flora.

Millie Stevens

Millie leads the testing and retesting programs, investigating the viability and germination requirements of our seed collections. Millie's work also involves managing the biology laboratory to support research students, scientists and volunteers, and data collection and management to inform the use and curation of our seed collections. Millie has worked with plant conservation collections as a horticulturist and research technician and enjoys learning about managing flora from across Australia's landscapes.

Freya Brown

Freya is currently working with Millie in the Seed Testing team. Her role involves managing the testing of collections for their viability and investigating their germination requirements. Freya and Millie work closely with the Technical Officer, Pip. Freya has previously worked with the NSB as a Project Officer conducting conservation and seed banking research as well as helping establish a microclimate monitoring network across Norfolk Island National Park and Uluru Kata-Tjuta National Park. Freya spends her time between the office and the field and is very passionate about plant conservation.

Mitchell Korda

Mitch is a Seed Collector and spends most of his time in the field, working to deliver National Seed Bank collection targets. The majority of the collecting trips are across the Southern Tablelands of NSW and the ACT. This work assists the Curator with collection planning and logistics, collecting seed and herbarium vouchers, recording associated data and processing material on return from field trips.

Pip Alvarez

Pip joins us with previous seed bank experience from PlantBank at Mt Annan and has recently finished her PhD with the University of Technology Sydney and Australian Botanic Garden. Her work focussed on understanding how heat stress impacts different stages in a plant's life cycle, from seeds up to adults. At the National Seed Bank, Pip is involved in conducting germination tests and assists in running the biology laboratory to support research students, scientists, data collection and analysis.

Trevor Jordan

Trevor has joined the National Seed Bank team as the Acting Scientific Facilities Officer. His role supports the Seed Bank by ensuring that all scientific equipment and facilities are maintained across the site which guarantees that the invaluable seed collections are protected. Trevor has a vast amount of experience maintaining various scientific facilities across Canberra and has worked extensively with the ANBG Trades depot.

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