[1] He studied geology and palaeontology at the University of Reading, graduating in 1967,[1][2] and published his first scientific paper, on fossil chordates, the following year.

[4] After finishing his PhD in 1975, he obtained a research position with the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) and later became the director of the International Louis Leakey Memorial Institute for African Prehistory in Nairobi.

[3] Whilst based in Kenya, he conducted fieldwork at Lake Baringo and also the Sivalik Hills in Pakistan.

He remained at Yale for the rest of his career, serving as a full professor from 1992, the J. Clayton Stephenson Professor of Anthropology from 2006, the chair of the department of anthropology from 2000 to 2006, and a curator and head of division at the Peabody Museum of Natural History.

[2] Hill was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2009.