Timothy John Entwisle

Timothy (Tim) John Entwisle (born 17 June 1960) is an Australian botanist,^[2] much of whose research work is in phycology (algae). See for example the articles.^[3][4][5][6] He was awarded a Ph.D. from La Trobe University in 1986 for work on the taxonomy of Vaucheria.^[7]

He was New South Wales’ Government Botanist from 2007 to 2011,^[8][9] and for eight years executive director of Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney (2003–2011).^[10][11] Subsequently, he was director of Conservation, Living Collections and Estates, Kew, London from 2011 to 2013,^[12][13] and from 2013 to 2023 director and chief executive of the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.^[10] Tim Entwisle was President of the International Association of Botanic Gardens (IABG) from 2016-2025.^[14]

Since November 2023, Tim Entwisle has been Chair of the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, and from November 2025, an Acting Commissioner with the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales. He continues as an honorary Professorial fellow at the University of Melbourne and in November 2025 was appointed Director Emeritus of Botanic Gardens of Sydney (where he continues algal research at their Australian Botanic Garden, Mount Annan, and in 2026 will host a science talk series on behalf of the Foundation and Friends of the Botanic Gardens, called 'Talking Plants with Tim Entwisle (Live!))

As director of the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, Entwisle managed Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens, the Mount Tomah Botanic Garden, in the Blue Mountains and the Mount Annan Botanic Garden, near Camden,^[13] and at Kew, he was responsible for Kew Gardens, Wakehurst Place, and the Millennium Seed Bank.^[13] At Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria he managed Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne and Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne, with a major project on taking up the Victorian appointment succession planning for the gardens under climate change.^[15]

Tim Entwisle values communicating with the general public as well as the scientific community. He is interviewed on radio frequently^{[16][17][18][19][20][21]} and had a program, Talking Plants, on ABC radio,,^[22] which ran from December 2014^[23] to January 2016.^[24] He is a regular contributor to the ABC radio program, Blueprint for living.^[25] He also writes blogs on plants,^[26][27] and articles for Gardening Australia.^[28]

In 2022, Tim was on the panel of expert judges for ABC's ‘Australia's Favourite Tree’ competition, where he appeared on episodes of ABC TV's show Catalyst.^[29] He also helped select the short-listed trees for a public poll which drew 265,000 responses over three weeks and contributed to ABC's live blog^[30] and various ABC radio conversations about the poll.

In the same year, Thames &Hudson published his memoir called ‘Evergreen: The Botanical Life of a Plant Punk’^[31] about his experiences as director of Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney, Kew and Melbourne, as well as his life influences and perspectives, particularly about the role of public gardens. His love of garage music and algae feature in the early years, and there is a chapter on the very public removal of ten fig trees in Sydney during his time as director there.

Entwisle continues to publish scientific papers in phycology,^[32][33][34] and articles and books for a more general audience about plants and gardens. In 2025, CSIRO Publishing released a book of 50 essays by Entwisle, with illustrations by his son Jerome KS Entwisle, called 'The Sceptical Botanist: Separating Fact from Fiction'.^[35]

The standard author abbreviation Entwisle is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.^[36]