Contact

                       Room 05-028, Biological and Conservation Sciences Building

                       Tel:  +27 31 2603197

                       Fax: +27 31 2601195

                       E-mail: pammente@ukzn.ac.za

Norman was initially trained in physics and chemistry, and moved into the botanical sciences at the post-graduate level. He completed his Bachelor of Science (BSc), BSc-Honours and Masters at the University of Natal and his Ph.D at Leeds University. Norman describes himself as a plant ecophysiologist and is still active and has published widely in this broad field. He has a particular interest in plant water relations, and it is this interest that led him to the study of desiccation tolerance and sensitivity in general, and recalcitrant seeds in particular. He has interests and experience in fields ranging as widely as ecology to biophysics, and so contributes to the group on a broad front. His current involvement includes the use of physiological approaches to the understanding of the basic biology of seed recalcitrance, and studies to elucidate the responses to cryo treatments, permitting the development of less empirical techniques of cryopreservation. The ultimate aim of cryopreservation is to produce viable plants growing under natural conditions, so he is particularly interested in the effects of the 'mal-treatments' associated with cryopreservation on the vigour, stress response, general physiology and any epigenetic changes of plants produced from material treated in this way.