Julia Higgins

Higgins was educated at the Ursuline High School, Wimbledon and Somerville College, Oxford where she was awarded Master of Arts and DPhil degrees.[7][8][9]

Higgins chaired the Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education (ACME) from 2008–2012. She is also a former chair (1998–2003) of the Athena Project, which aims for the advancement of women in science, engineering and technology (SET) in Higher Education. Between 2003 and 2007, she was also chair of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Higgins was president of the Institution of Chemical Engineers 2002–3, and president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science 2003–4. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1995[8] and was its foreign secretary 2001–06.[8]

She is a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Academy of Engineering,[10] and the City and Guilds of London Institute, of which she is Vice-President. She is an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Physics and of Somerville College, Oxford.[11]

She was appointed a CBE in 1996 before being named a dame in the 2001 Queen's Birthday Honours list.[12] Dame Julia replaced Professor Adrian Smith FRS as ACME Chair in September 2008 when Adrian became Director General of Science and Research at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills. She holds honorary degrees from a number of UK universities and the University of Melbourne, Australia. Her scientific work has concentrated on the investigation of polymers with neutron scattering.[2] She co-authored a monograph on that field (Higgins & Benoit 1997).[13]

In April 2003 she became Chair of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. She was succeeded by John Armitt on 1 April 2007. In June 2006 Higgins was appointed Principal of the Faculty of Engineering at Imperial College London. The Faculty of Engineering at Imperial College is one of the largest in the UK, comprising nine departments with 1,000 staff, over 4,200 students and an annual turnover of around £80 million. She is a member of the World Knowledge Dialogue Scientific Board, president of the ESPCI ParisTech Scientific Committee.[14]

She is a Patron of WISE, a charitable organisation that encourages young women to pursue careers in Science, Engineering and Construction.[15] as well as a member of the Advisory Council for the Campaign for Science and Engineering.[16]

She served as President of the Institute of Physics from 1 October 2017 to 30 September 2019.[17]

Higgins was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1989. Her nomination reads:

After obtaining a first degree in Physics the candidate undertook research in the field of Physical Chemistry. She started using neutron scattering as a tool for investigating molecular structure and dynamics at this stage, first applying the techniques to the study of polymers while a post-doctoral research assistant in the Chemistry Department at Manchester. She was closely involved with the development of new techniques, their application in Polymer Science and the formation of an international community of scientists using these techniques while employed as a Physicist at the Institut Laue-Langevin, Grenoble.[8] Since [sic] returning to the UK at Imperial she has built an internationally recognised group. She is well-known for her studies of the dynamics of polymer molecules, especially in the bulk state and, more recently the thermodynamics and demixing processes in polymer blends. Dr Higgins has a wonderful ability for recognizing when a new area of polymer science is ripe for experimental study and has a row of 'firsts' to her credit.[18]

Other awards and honours include: