Around the World in 80 Trees
with Dr. Jonathan Drori, author and board member, Cambridge University Botanic Garden
Friday, February 21, 2025 from 2-3 p.m. ET
Virtual
$15 AHS members/$20 non-members
In Around the World in 80 Trees, Jonathan Drori uses plant science to illuminate how trees play a role in every part of human life, from the romantic to the regrettable. From the trees of Britain, to India’s sacred banyan tree, they offer us sanctuary and inspiration – not to mention the raw materials for everything from aspirin to maple syrup. Stops on the trip may include the lime trees of Berlin’s Unter den Linden boulevard, which intoxicate amorous Germans and hungry bees alike, the swankiest streets in nineteenth-century London, which were paved with Australian eucalyptus wood, and the redwood forests of California, where the secret to the trees’ soaring heights can be found in the properties of the tiniest drops of water.
Jonathan Drori is the author of Around the World in 80 Plants and Around the World in 80 Trees. Jon combines interests in nature, environment and science communication with experience in technology, history and culture. Jon was a BBC Executive Producer and Director, responsible for more than fifty popular BBC science and technology documentaries and series. He still makes short films for plant and seed-collecting expeditions and is also known for several TED talks on pollen, seeds, and flowers. (They have been viewed more than 3 million times on www.ted.com). Jon was founding Director of Culture Online at the UK Government’s Department for Culture Media and Sport – a program to extend the reach of culture and the arts to new audiences using new digital techniques.
Jon is Trustee of The Eden Project and Cambridge University Botanic Garden, a member of the Council of Ambassadors of the WWF and a former trustee of The Woodland Trust and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He is Chairman of Ravensbourne University London, a Fellow of the Linnean Society and the Zoological Society of London, a full voting member of BAFTA and a Visiting Professor at Bristol University, specializing in science misconceptions. Jon was made CBE by H. M. The Queen in December 2006.
