“It doesn't matter how many David Attenborough programmes you watch... to see the wonders of nature with your own eyes is truly amazing.”
For scientist Professor Jane Hill, a defining moment came in a tropical rainforest on Borneo. It was one of her first trips to the tropics – where most of the world's biodiversity lives. To see what was out there, one night her team hung out a big white sheet and shone a light on it in the darkness.
“It was just incredible,” she remembers. “The sheer number of insects that came in all their shapes, sizes and colours. I just thought, wow.”
For Jane, that simple white sheet illuminated the scale of Earth’s amazing, and often hidden, biodiversity.
As this week's Human of York, she tells us: “It isn't just the popular animals we like to see – the birds and butterflies. It’s also about less charismatic ants, wasps, flies and beetles that pollinate our crops and provide many benefits to the environment.
“Nature is often seen as a blocker to what we want to do, rather than something we fundamentally rely on for our survival as a species."
From providing critical evidence to improve conservation strategies, to advancing understanding of how species move across landscapes, to testing sustainable practices for the global palm oil industry, Jane’s pioneering work led to her election as a Fellow of the Royal Society last year.
Her research isn’t just focused on balancing the needs of people and nature, but on revealing the ways in which we are interconnected.
Professor Jane Hill, Department of Biology, Humans of York, February 2026
