Professor Katherine J. Willis Head of the Lab
Projects
What ecosystem services are provided by rewilding?
The role of plant biodiversity in delivering ecosystem services that underpin human well-Being
Soil carbon and farm productivity implications of Regenerative Agriculture
Vegetation response to climate change: a functional traits-based approach
HumBug: we are using smartphones to record and identify mosquitoes by their flight tones
Evidence Based Forestry & Landuse
Palaeo-Trophic Cascades (PACE)
Previous Work
The Central American Isthmus: Ecological Dynamics of the Middle-Late Holocene
The Role of Soil Nutrients in Arctic Greening
Local Ecological Footprinting Tool (LEFT)
Systemic Integrated Adaptation planning framework
Linking soil management to ecosystem functions and services in oil palm plantings
Resilience of Tropical Peat Swamp Forests
Holocene tree-cover in Europe and implications for re-wilding strategies
Impact of EU Agri-environment policies on ecosystem functioning
Resilience of Southeast Asian Lowland Rainforest to large-scale climatic changes
Disturbance regimes in Central African Rainforests
Retrospectively evaluating the effectiveness of Community Based Conservation projects in Madagascar
80,000 years of climate change and forest resilience in the Eastern Mediterranean
Optimising Protected Area Networks in Europe
Agro-economic and ecological impact of GM and non-GM cotton farming in India
Long Term Biodiversity Change of Canary Islands
Floods & Droughts: Environmental Dynamics in the Upper Zambezi Valley
Current Research
Kathy’s research is focused on the use of fossil and modern datasets, models and innovative technologies to determine the diversity, distribution and abundance of plants and animals across global landscapes in space and time. This evidence-base is then used to understand biodiversity baselines, the resilience of biological communities to external shocks, the relationship between biodiversity and human health (good and bad) and the distribution of natural capital assets across global landscapes that are important for human well-being.
Academic Profile
Kathy Willis is Professor of Biodiversity in the Department of Zoology and Principal of St Edmund Hall. She gained her first degree in Geography and Environmental Science from the University of Southampton, and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in Plant Sciences. In her early postdoctoral career, Kathy held a Selwyn College Research Fellowship and then a NERC Postdoctoral Fellowship in the department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge. This was followed by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship in the Godwin Institute for Quaternary Research, University of Cambridge. Kathy moved to a University Lectureship in the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford in 1999 where she established the Oxford Long-term Ecology Laboratory in 2002 and was made a Professor of Long-term Ecology in 2008. Kathy was appointed to the Tasso Leventis Chair in Biodiversity in the department of Zoology in 2010 and was also appointed as first Director of the James Martin Biodiversity Institute. Kathy then went on an 80% secondment from Oxford University to the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew between 2013-2018 as their first Director of Science. At Kew she was responsible for a science staff of 360 people, management of the extensive plant collections and delivery of the Kew science strategy and associated strategic outputs (read more about the science strategy here). Kathy returned to take up the position of Principal of St Edmund Hall in 2018 and continue her role as Head of the Oxford Long-term Ecology Lab.
Other professional activities and service include:
- President of the International Biogeography Society, 2018-2022 http://www.biogeography.org
- Member of the UK Government’s Natural Capital Committee, 2015-2020 https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/natural-capital-committee
- Trustee, The Wallacea Trust
- Board Member, 2015-2020, International Sustainable Biomass Partnership
- Executive Board,2016-2018, UK Plant Sciences Federation
- Oxford Honorary Degree Committee
- Delegate, 2013-2020 Oxford University Press
- Member of the Expert Advisory Group for the Scottish Centre of Expertise in Plant Health
- UK delegate to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
Awards and professional memberships:
- CBE for services to Biodiversity and Conservation, Queen’s Birthday Honors, 2018
- British Ecological Society, Marsh Award for outstanding contributions to the field of Ecology, 2018
- Honorary Doctorate, University of Bergen, 2017
- Honorary Fellow, Selwyn College, Cambridge, 2017
- Michael Faraday Medal for public communication of science, Royal Society, 2015
- Honorary Fellow, St Hugh’s College, Oxford, 2015
- Fellow of Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters, Foreign Member, 2010
- Lyell Fund Award, Geological Society of London, 2008
- University Teaching Excellence Award, 2008
- Fellow of Geological Society, 2008
Successful grant applications in the past 5 years include:
- 2018-2021 – $1.98 million from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Principal Investigator – Willis: HUMBUG: Developing a mosquito monitoring tool for Least Developed Countries https://humbug.ox.ac.uk
- 2015-2018 – £450,000 from Belmont Foundation Grant. Co-Principal Investigator – Willis: Food Security Impacts of Industrial Crop Expansion in Sub-Sahara Africa
- 2015-2018 – £500,000 from Google Impact Challenge Award. Principal Investigator – Willis: Remote assessment and identification of mosquito species using smartphone technologies
- 2013-2018 – €1.9million from EU Life+ grant. Principal Investigator – Willis: NaturEtrade creating a marketplace for ecosystem services
- 2013-2016 – £400,000 from NERC-ESPA. Principal Investigator – Willis: Unravelling biofuel impacts on ecosystem services, human wellbeing and poverty alleviation in Sub-Saharan Africa
Policy:
Kathy has also been closely involved in the scrutiny of the scientific evidence-base underpinning International, UK and local government policies associated with the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan, the Biodiversity Net Gain Bill, ELMs scheme, the Environment Bill and its proposed nature-based interventions to achieve the UK’s target for reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. She was also a Lead Chapter author on the “Nature” chapter for the Global Assessment of the International Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and edited State of the Worlds Plants 2016, 2017 and State of the World’s Fungi 2018
Selected public outreach activities in the past 5 years include:
- BBC 2016 – Writing and presenter of BBC World Service two-part series ‘Feeding the World’ (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03mlfbb)
- BBC 2015 – Describing academic life to date in interview on BBC Radio 4 ‘The Life Scientific’ (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03855rk )
- BBC 2014 – Writing and presenter of 25-part BBC Radio 4 series Plants: From Roots to Riches (see:http://www.kew.org/science-conservation/plants-fungi/plants-roots-to-riches
Selected Publications
Currently I have published approximately 160 papers in refereed international journals, 3 academic books, 3 popular science books and 4 edited volumes; H-index 66 (Google scholar: 10/6/21)
For up-to-date list of publications please visit following site