Julia Higgins

Dame Julia Stretton Higgins, DBE, FRS, FREng (née Downes; born 1 July 1942) is Professor of Polymer Science in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemical Technology at Imperial College London. She chairs the Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education (ACME).

Higgins is an advisory committee member and 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 and was its Foreign Secretary 2001–6. Most recently, she was Chair of the Royal Society's State of the Nation Report Steering Group.

She is a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Academy of Engineering. She is also an honorary Fellow of the Institute of Physics and Somerville College, Oxford. She was awarded a CBE in 1996 before being named a dame in the 2001 Queen's Birthday Honours list. 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.

Her scientific work has concentrated on the investigation of polymers with neutron scattering. She co-authored a monograph on that field (Higgins & Benoit 1997). In 1999, she was elected as Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. She is a foreign member of the National Academy of Engineering of the United States. She was named Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2001.

On 1 November 2006, she finished her five-year appointment as Vice President and Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society. She is a member and former Chair of the steering committee of the Athena project - a UK wide government funded activity to improve recruitment, retention and advancement of women in academic posts in Science Technology and Medicine.

In March 2010, the UKRC announced Professor Higgins as one of six Women of Outstanding Achievement in Science, Engineering and Technology.^[1]

Affiliations

• Principal of the Faculty of Engineering (presently, as of 2009)
• Chair of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (2003-April 2007)
• Trustee, National Gallery
• Trustee, Daphne Jackson Trust
• Fellow of the Royal Society
• Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
• Foreign member of the National Academy of Engineering of the United States
• Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 2003
• President, British Association for the Advancement of Science from 2003 until 2004.

In April 2003 she became Chairman of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. She was succeeded by John Armitt on the 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,^[2] and "Scientist in Residence" for the first symposium in 2006 in Crans-Montana (Switzerland).

She is a Patron of WISE, a charitable organisation that encourages young women to pursue careers in Science, Engineering and Construction.^[3] as well as a member of the Advisory Council for the Campaign for Science and Engineering.^[4]

References

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ ESPCI International Scientific Committee
3. ^ WISE Patrons
4. ^ "Advisory Council of the Campaign for Science and Engineering". http://www.sciencecampaign.org.uk/about/who/advisory.htm. Retrieved 2011-02-11. 

Writings

• Higgins, J.S. & HC Benoit: Polymers and neutron scattering, 1997

External links

• Professor Dame Julia Higgins' profile, Ingenia, September 2007

Persondata
Name	Higgins, Julia
Alternative names	Downes, Julia Stretton
Short description	British chemist, scientist and academic
Date of birth	1 July 1942
Place of birth	Surrey, England, UK
Date of death
Place of death