Andrew D. Q. Agnew, now retired, taught students plant ecology and taxonomy in Dundee, Baghdad, Nairobi and Aberystwyth University. He has a deep interest in the flora of Kenya, and has published widely on the flora and vegetation of that country. Agnew was a long-term colleague of J. Bastow Wilson, and together they published many scientific papers on vegetation dynamics and plant community ecology.

Stephen H. Roxburgh is an ecologist with the Commonwealth and Scientific Research Organisation in Canberra, Australia. He has published over 100 scientific papers and reports on a range of ecological topics including plant community structure and the maintenance of biological diversity, vegetation patterns and dynamics, and greenhouse gas and carbon accounting. He was a former Ph.D. student of J. Bastow Wilson and worked closely with him.