Alistair Hetherington is Melville Wills Professor of Botany, Emeritus, at the University of Bristol. He graduated in Botany from the University of St Andrews and remained there to complete a PhD. After working at the Universities of Edinburgh and Lancaster he moved to Bristol in 2006 and in 2017 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science by University College Dublin. 

He has held Visiting Fellowships at St Catherine’s College and Magdalen College (Oxford) and is an Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka. He currently holds a Leverhulme Trust Emeritus Fellowship and has worked with UK Research and Innovation for over 30 years where he is currently Chair of BBSRC Research Committee E (Fellowships). 

Alistair has a wealth of experience of scientific research and how it is funded. His main research interests focus on understanding the mechanisms that allow plants to adapt to a changing environment and the evolution of stomata.

Alistair became a Trustee of National Museums Scotland in April 2025, and his term of appointment runs until March 2029. He lives in Lancashire.