Profile
Lara Hillyard
-
About Me:
I grew up in Oxfordshire but now live with my partner in West Yorkshire. I’m a data scientist making maps about nature and love to be out in the countryside as much as possible! When I’m not out on a run or off wild swimming, I love to draw, work on my cross-stitch projects and play video games with my brother.
-
Read more
When I was growing up I didn’t know for sure that I want to be a scientist. I’ve always loved nature and grew up watching David Attenborough, but thought that I wanted to take English and Art for my A Levels until the last minute. Even when I knew that I wanted to study science, I wasn’t sure what kind of science was my favourite and it took me a while to work it out. Now I use lots of my interests to help me in my work – my artsy side, maths skills and love for wildlife all come into play.
-
My pronouns are:
she/her
-
My Work:
I am a data scientist working for Natural England. I make maps that help us to understand nature and greenspaces across the country.
-
Read more
The project that I work on looks at green infrastructure (including both green and blue spaces) across England. I use GIS (Geographic Information System) programmes and computer coding to analyse very large datasets and produce maps that everyone can look at and understand. I love my job – to me it’s the perfect blend of maths, science, and creativity.
My work covers a wide variety of themes, including assessing people’s access to nature and the inequalities in accessing nature that exist across the country, creating better networks of greenspaces for wildlife to travel across, and understanding the benefits that greenspaces can provide to improve our urban areas’ resilience to climate change.
-
My Typical Day:
I wake up and have breakfast (porridge with chocolate chips or yogurt and honey). Then I catch the bus to the office. I get to work at 8:30am and log on to my laptop. In the morning, I usually have meetings with my team and with people I am working on different projects with. Then I have lunch with my friends, and in the afternoon I work on my data analysis and mapping tasks. I go home between 4 and 5pm, have dinner and either go for a run or a swim, or just relax.
-
Read more
Every day, I spend a little time learning new things to help me in my job. At the moment I am more learning how to carry out more powerful analysis using the programming language Python. I really enjoy improving my skills – it keeps my work interesting and fresh!
-
What I'd do with the prize money:
I’d love to create an activity to take to local schools to share my love for wildlife and nature by teaching students about how to make their own maps of the places that matter to them. Maybe this would help demonstrate how powerful maps can be!
-
Education:
Burford Secondary School and Sixth Form (2011-2018)
University of York (2018-2022)
University of Exeter, Penryn Campus (2022-2023)
-
Qualifications:
GCSEs: 6 A*, 3A, 3B
A Level: AAB (Biology, Chemistry, Maths)
BSc Biology (with a Year in Industry)
MSc Conservation and Biodiversity
-
Work History:
My first proper part-time job was when I was 17 as a retail assistant in the town where I went to school.
I worked as a marine biology intern in Mozambique during the summer of my first year of university. We did lots of research scuba dives and I helped to carry out research on manta rays, humpback whales, all kinds of sharks and predatory fish, and even tiny sea slugs!
During my placement year of my undergraduate degree I worked at Bristol Zoo in their field conservation department. Mostly I worked with my colleagues coordinating a project protecting the warty pig and bleeding-heart dove in the Philippines.
When I first joined Natural England in 2024, I worked as an advisor for protected sites (mostly SSSIs – Sites of Special Scientific Interest). Lots of my job involved working with farmers and other landowners in protected sites to make sure that they could do their work while protecting the habitats across their land. About a year ago, I started in my role in geographic data science.
-
Current Job:
Geospatial Data Scientist
-
Employer:
Natural England (the government’s adviser for the natural environment in England)
-
My Interview
-
How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
outdoorsy map lover
What did you want to be after you left school?
A safari guide in Kenya
Were you ever in trouble at school?
I don't think I was - I was so embarrassed if I ever got told off!
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
I'd love to be a swimming teacher
Who is your favourite singer or band?
ABBA, Rihanna, and Bruno Mars
What's your favourite food?
My mum's lasagne - with garlic bread of course!
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
To be a really fast runner, to be able to speak every language, and to be able to play a musical instrument (I don't have very good rhythm but I love to dance and sing anyway)
Tell us a joke.
What cheese should you use to hide a horse? Mascarpone!
-