Barbara Wills is an experienced conservator who works with objects made primarily of organic materials. Her specialisms include basketry, leather (and related) materials, ancient Egyptian organics, and human remains. She is experienced in the treatment of lacquer, wood, textiles, barkcloth, ivory, bone, amber and more. She has published and lectured widely (with over 20 refereed articles), and has worked on site in Sudan, East Anglia and other contexts where organics are preserved.

Barbara is keen to share knowledge with colleagues, students and others. She has contributed regularly to the Institute of Archaeology (University College London) G121 Conservation Processes course teaching ‘Plants, baskets and the ancient Egyptians’ and ‘Deterioration and Conservation of basketry’ and also for their MA in Principles of Conservation course on ‘The conservation care of natural human mummies in collections’. She has regularly organized meetings, for example after completion of a two-year Senior Clothworkers’ Fellowship project: ‘Safeguarding a body of evidence: researching and conserving a group of exceptional naturally-mummified Nilotic human remains’, which resulted in a two-day conference and workshop in 2015 and a publication in the British Museum Technical Research Bulletin.