Katherine (Kathy) Willis CBE is Professor of Biodiversity in the department of Biology and the Principal of St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford. She is also a Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords. Previous roles include Director of Science at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and a member of the UK Government’s Natural Capital Committee.

She has over 30 years of experience as a leading internationally recognised plant research scientist. Her areas of scientific expertise cover plant evolution, biodiversity conservation, natural resource management, natural capital assessments, agri-environment schemes, nature-based solutions, forestry, climate change, and the relationship between biodiversity and human health.

Alongside her own scientific research, she has spent her working life communicating, leading and producing strategy documents that set the way for the future of nature, including State of the World’s Plants (2016, 2017), State of the World’s Fungi (2018) and as a lead author on the 2019 Global Assessment of Biodiversity for the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

Kathy has also published four books for a general audience: The Evolution of Plants; Roots to Riches, based on the BBC radio series of the same name; Botanicum, part of a successful series of books for children and Good Nature: the new science of how nature improves our health (Bloomsbury Publishing 2024). This most recent book pulls together the newly emerging scientific evidence to demonstrate the physical and psychological changes that automatically occur in our bodies when our senses (sight, sound, smell, touch etc.) interact with different aspects of nature; changes that result in significant improvements in mental and physical health. Good Nature is published in translation in 18 languages.