Jane Stout

Stout grew up in rural Northamptonshire,^[1] and studied an environmental science BSc at the University of Southampton, later graduating with a PhD in the foraging ecology of bumblebees in 1999.^[2]

Jane was a postdoctoral researcher and teaching fellow at the University of Southampton, moving to Trinity College Dublin in 2001 to be a postdoctoral researcher and from 2003 lecturer,^[3] In 2011 she was elected a fellow and in 2015 she was made Professor in Botany.^[4][5]

Stout's work is on pollinator ecology, biodiversity and land management.^[6]

In 2015 her work helped initiate the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan, aiming to identify actions to make Ireland more pollinator friendly.^[7] In 2017 she set up apiary on the TCD campus, to compare honey from urban and rural honeybee hives.^[8] She has also researched the benefits of Irish honey, ^[9] the value of pollinators in Ireland,^[10] the effects of pesticides, ^[11] and pesticide residues on bees, ^[12] as well as working on longterm data on pollinators in Ireland.^[13]

Stout wrote a regular Irish Times column, including articles on the need for farmers and ecologists to work together,^[14] and why people and nature need each other.,^[15] in 2020 she carried out a biodiversity assessment for President Higgins,^[16] and was head of the expert review into the future of Ireland's National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) in 2021,^[17] which reported neglect and under funding^[18] and resulted in a 2022 action plan.^[19]

Jane has also published research on the benefits of forest,^[20] she leads the first project looking at natural capital and catchment management^[21] and more recently has worked on projects to improve the local environment in Dublin.^[22]