Good Nature: The new science of how nature improves our health Kathy Willis
Event details
Did you know that cedar enhances cancer-fighting cells in our immune system? Or that touching wood makes us feel calmer (the woodier, the knottier, the better)? Or that the scent of roses helps people drive more calmly and safely?
Fifteen years ago, eminent biologist Kathy Willis of the University of Oxford read a study that radically changed her view of our relationship to the natural world. The study revealed that hospital patients recovering from surgery improved three times faster when they looked out of their windows at trees rather than seeing walls. Since then, she has dedicated her research to proving this link between the amount of green space in our lives and our better health, mood and longevity.
Join Kathy, author of Good Nature, as she takes a science-based look at how, by bringing nature into our towns and cities, we can reduce the costs of healthcare and create a better, happier and healthier environment.
This event is supported by the Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity.
Book sales
You can buy copies of many of our speakers’ books from Fox Lane Books, a local independent bookseller and Festival partner. In some cases, author signed bookplates are available too.
Portrait image credit: John Cairns
About the speaker
Professor Baroness Kathy Willis CBE is a Professor of Biodiversity in the Department of Biology and the Principal of St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford, UK. She is also a Crossbench Peer and a member of the Science and Technology Select Committee 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. Kathy has led a number of initiatives to assimilate global knowledge on plant (and fungal) biodiversity change 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. She was awarded the Michael Faraday Medal for public communication of science from the Royal Society in 2015 and is the author of a number of books including Good Nature: The New Science of How Nature improves Our Health (Bloomsbury, 2024).
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