Waheed currently works as a Scientist at Botanical Software, providing botanical expertise in the development of plant collection management software. According to BGCI’s GardenSearch, less than 20% of gardens have a computerised plant record system. Among the reasons for this are the complexity of existing solutions, the high cost of ownership, and the lack of collaboration. Hortis (www.hortis.com) is a cloud-based platform, and addresses many of these fundamental record-keeping and data management challenges faced in the global community of botanic gardens today.

Waheed completed his PhD in 2019 with London’s NERC Doctoral Training Partnership, a four-year scholarship funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). His research focussed on the phenomenon of seed and fruit heteromorphism in Aethionema arabicum (Brassicaceae), conducted at Royal Holloway University of London in collaboration with the Millennium Seed Bank at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Prior to this, he completed his MSc in Plant Diversity at the University of Reading / Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), and his BSc (Hons) in Biology from Durham University.

Throughout his career, Waheed has spent a number of years working with Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, beginning as an intern in the Collection of the Herbarium, Library, Art & Archives in 2013. His projects have included databasing carpological collections (Rubiaceae), digitising herbarium specimens, and providing curatorial support to several systematics teams.

In 2021, he was nominated and elected as a Fellow of The Linnean Society of London for his contributions to plant taxonomy, seed science, and collection management in botanic gardens.