Kathryn Williams

Kathryn Williams is Professor of Environmental Psychology and Deputy Head of School in the School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences, Faculty of Science, at the University of Melbourne. She holds a PhD from Monash University awarded in 1998 and a Bachelors Degree with Honours from the University of Melbourne. Throughout her career at the University of Melbourne, previously in the School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, she has advanced understanding in environmental psychology through mixed-method research encompassing surveys, experiments, field observations, and photo-based techniques. Her investigations center on human emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses to natural environments.

Williams specializes in relationships between people and forests, bushfire landscapes, grasslands, and urban nature including parks, gardens, and green infrastructure. Her research addresses conservation psychology, attention restoration from green roofs and urban greening, plant blindness implications for conservation, public values in bushfire risk planning and natural disaster management, social-ecological systems governance, and public acceptance of forestry and land uses. Prominent publications include "Plant blindness and the implications for plant conservation" (2016), "40-second green roof views sustain attention: The role of micro-breaks in attention restoration" (2015), "Public values for integration in natural disaster management and planning: A case study from Victoria, Australia" (2017), "Contested beliefs about land-use are associated with divergent representations of a rural landscape as place" (2017), and "Social licence to operate and forestry - an introduction". With more than 6,600 citations on Google Scholar, her contributions influence forest policy, urban adaptation, and biodiversity efforts. She serves as Associate Editor for People and Nature journal and received an award from the University of Melbourne in 2022.

Professional Email: kjhw@unimelb.edu.au