The Royal Botanic Gardens of Sydney

Hannah McPherson

Collections Manager

Learn more about Hannah's research
Staff-Hannah-McPherson-1584x633.jpg

Dr Hannah McPherson is the Collections Manager at the National Herbarium of New South Wales at the Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan.

She brings over 26 years of experience in collections management, research, and curation. Hannah has a PhD and a strong background in botany, ecology, systematics and herbarium curation. She has worked in other herbaria in Australia and overseas and has broad interests in collections care and botanical history. 

As the Collections Manager, Hannah oversees the management and curation of the extensive collection of over 1 million Herbarium specimens, digital images, and the Daniel Solander Library. She has played a vital role in the design and implementation of the new Herbarium, leading a team of twelve across two sites during a period of significant transformation. 

Hannah recently collaborated on a ground-breaking project, which saw the successful digitisation of over 1 million herbarium specimens – the largest initiative of its kind in the southern hemisphere. This will provide increased access to the collection and benefits to the wider community.  

Throughout her career, Hannah has focused her research on the flora of New South Wales, conducting extensive fieldwork and employing a multidisciplinary approach to investigate species and population dynamics on a landscape scale. She has conducted fieldwork throughout Australia and New Zealand and she has presented on the National Herbarium of New South Wales and her research to scientific and general audiences worldwide. 

  • Staff-Hannah-McPherson-specimen-1024x676.jpg
  • Staff-Hannah-McPherson-herbarium-files-1024x676.jpg

Top 5 research articles

  • Mackenzie, B.D.E., Clarke, S.W., Zimmer, H.C., Liew, E.C., Phelan, M.T., Offord, C.A., Menke, L.K., Crust, D.W., Bragg, J., McPherson, H. and Rossetto, M. (2021). Ecology and conservation of a living fossil: Australia's Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis). EcoEvoReprints doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-821139-7.00188-4

  • Rossetto M, Bragg J, Kilian A, McPherson H, van der Merwe M, Wilson PD (2019) Restore and Renew: a genomics‐era framework for species provenance delimitation. Restoration Ecology. 27(3): 538–548

  • Greenfield A, McPherson H, Auld T, Delaney S, Offord CA, van der Merwe M, Yap JYS, Rossetto M (2017) Whole-chloroplast analysis as an approach for fine-tuning the preservation of a highly charismatic but critically endangered species, Wollemia nobilis (Araucariaceae). Australian Journal of Botany 64(8): 654-658

  • Rossetto M, McPherson H, Siow J, Kooyman R, van der Merwe M, Wilson PD (2015) Where did all the trees come from? A novel multidisciplinary approach reveals the impacts of biogeographic history and functional diversity on rain forest assembly. Journal of Biogeography 42: 2172-2186

  • McPherson H, van der Merwe M, Delaney SK, Edwards MA, Henry RJ, McIntosh E, Rymer PD, Milner ML, Siow J, Rossetto M (2013) Capturing chloroplast variation for molecular ecology studies: a simple next generation sequencing approach applied to a rainforest tree. BMC Ecology 13:8.