César Gómez Campo The late César Gómez Campo was justly renowned for his innovative work on plant conservation in Spain. His achievements include the establishment in 1966 of the seed bank (ETSIA-UPM now BGV-UPM) for native Spanish species at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, the first of seed bank in the world to be devoted to the conservation of wild species. He pioneered novel seed storage approaches and encouraged the setting up of wild plant seed banks in other parts of Spain and in other countries using the techniques he had developed. He travelled widely in Spain and throughout the Mediterranean and the Middle East to collect seed. The BGV-UPM seed bank now contains samples of 350 threatened Spanish species and subspecies, about 25% of the threatened flora of Spain, either collected by him or at his instigation. Gómez Campo had a lifelong interest in Crucifers and studied various aspects of their agronomy, physiology, taxonomy and conservation. He established a collection of crucifers. He edited a major work, Plant Conservation in the Mediterranean Area (1985). He was also editor of the first Red Book of Threatened Plants of Spain (1987) and of the Canary islands (1996). He was enormously influential and inspired generations of students to become active in conservation programmes. The leading role that Spain occupies today in conservation in the Mediterranean region is largely due to his efforts. He received many awards in Spain and can rightly be regarded as the dean of Spanish plant conservation. Professor César Gómez Campo died in Madrid on September 5, 2009.