Julia Higgins

British polymer scientist (born 1942)

Professor

Dame Julia Higgins

DBE FRS FREng HonFInstP

Higgins in 2019

Born|

Julia Stretton Downes

(1942-07-01) 1 July 1942 (age 83)[1]

Surbiton, London, England[2]

Alma mater| Somerville College, Oxford (MA, DPhil)
Awards|

* Sir Frank Whittle Medal (2020)
* Holweck Prize (2006)
* DBE (2001)
* FRS (1995)
* FREng (1999)

Scientific career
Fields|

* Polymer science
* Neutron scattering

Institutions|

* Imperial College London
* University of Manchester
* Institut Laue–Langevin

Thesis| Inelastic scattering of neutrons from clathrate inclusion compounds and molecules in molecular sieves (1968)
Website| www.imperial.ac.uk/people/j.higgins

Dame Julia Stretton Higgins (née Downes; born 1 July 1942) is a British polymer scientist. Since 1976, she has been based at the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London, where (since 2007) she is emeritus professor and senior research investigator.[1][3][4][5][6][7]

## Education

[edit]

Higgins was educated at the Ursuline High School, Wimbledon and Somerville College, Oxford where she was awarded Master of Arts and DPhil degrees.[8][9][10]

## Career

[edit]

In 1999, Higgins was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering for the application of neutron scattering and reflectivity to polymeric materials, and for service to the scientific community.

Higgins chaired the Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education (ACME) from 2008 to 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 2002–03, and president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science 2003–04. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1995,[9] and was its foreign secretary 2001–06.[9]

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,[11] 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.[12]

She was appointed a CBE in 1996, before being named a dame in the 2001 Queen's Birthday Honours list.[13] 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.[3] She co-authored a monograph on that field (Higgins & Benoit 1997).[14]

In April 2003, she became chair of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and 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.[15]

She is a Patron of WISE, a charitable organisation that encourages young women to pursue careers in Science, engineering and Construction,[16] as well as a member of the Advisory Council for the Campaign for Science and Engineering.[17]

She served as president of the Institute of Physics from 1 October 2017 to 30 September 2019.[18]

## Awards and honours

[edit]

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.[9] 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.[19]

Other awards and honours include:

* Principal of the Faculty of engineering (2006–07)
* Chair of the engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (2003 – April 2007)
* Trustee, National Gallery until 2010[20]
* Trustee, Daphne Jackson Trust
* Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering[11]
* 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.
* Received an honorary doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 2000[21]
* 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 the 2001 Birthday Honours. In March 2010, the UKRC announced Professor Higgins as one of six Women of Outstanding Achievement in Science, engineering and Technology.[22]
* A portrait of her by Tess Barnes was unveiled in June 2014 at Imperial College.[23]
* In 1999 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng).[11]
* She was chair of the Royal Society's 2008 State of the Nation Report Steering Group for 'Science and mathematics education 14–19'.[24]
* In 2016, she was interviewed by Jim Al-Khalili on The Life Scientific.[10]
* Awarded the Sir Frank Whittle Medal by the Royal Academy of engineering in 2020 "for her sustained excellence in polymer engineering".[25]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b "HIGGINS, Dame Julia (Stretton)". Who's Who. Vol. 2014 (online edition via Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
2. ^ Higgins, Julia (2011). "Professor Dame Julia Higgins" (PDF). National Life Stories: An Oral History of British Science (Interview). Interviewed by Thomas Lean. The British Library. Ref no: C1379/55.
3. ^ a b Julia Higgins's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
4. ^ "Dame Julia Higgins profile". Retrieved 18 April 2014.
5. ^ Professor Dame Julia Higgins' profile Archived 24 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Ingenia, September 2007
6. ^ Symposium Opening speech by Julia Higgins 2008 on YouTube
7. ^ The Royal Society's The Vision Committee's Vision for the future of Science and Maths Education on YouTube, chaired by Julia Higgins
8. ^ Higgins, Julia Stretton (1968). Inelastic scattering of neutrons from clathrate inclusion compounds and molecules in molecular sieves. bodleian.ox.ac.uk (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford.
9. ^ a b c d "Life Stories in association with the British Library" (PDF). Sounds.bl.uk. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
10. ^ a b Al-Khalili, Jim (2016). "Julia Higgins on polymers, interview on The Life Scientific". bbc.co.uk. London: BBC.
11. ^ a b c "List of Fellows". Royal Academy of Engineering. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 2 July 2022.
12. ^ "Professor Dame Julia Higgins". Retrieved 21 April 2018.
13. ^ "The Queen's birthday Honours". News.bbc.co.uk. 2001. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
14. ^ "Somerville College Oxford web-site". Some.ox.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 24 July 2016. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
15. ^ "ESPCI Paris : Conseil scientifique international". Espci.fr. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
16. ^ "About Us". Archived from the original on 31 December 2008. Retrieved 22 December 2008.
17. ^ "Advisory Council of the Campaign for Science and Engineering". Sciencecampaign.org.uk. Archived from the original on 28 August 2010. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
18. ^ "Dame Julia Higgins to be the IOP's next president-elect". Iop.org. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
19. ^ "EC/1995/11: Higgins, Dame Julia Stretton". London, UK: The Royal Society. Archived from the original on 31 July 2014.
20. ^ "Board of Trustees". National Gallery. 2010. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
21. ^ "Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh: Honorary Graduates". 1.hw.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 18 April 2016. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
22. ^ "THE uk's MOST OUTSTANDING WOMEN IN SET ANNOUNCED : News from UK Resource Centre for Women (UKRC)". Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 19 November 2010.
23. ^ "Imperial unveils historic portrait of leading female scientist". 3.imperial.ac.uk. 23 June 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
24. ^ "State of the Nation: Science and mathematics education 14–19". royalsociety.org. 2008. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
25. ^ "Sir Frank Whittle Medal". Retrieved 14 September 2020.

* v
* t
* e

Fellows of the Royal Society elected in 1995

Fellows|

* Martin A. Bennett
* Iain Campbell
* Johnson Cann
* Keith Chater
* Ed Corrigan
* E. Brian Davies
* Graham Dixon-Lewis
* Richard Ellis
* Graham Farquhar
* Jeffrey Harborne
* Julia Higgins
* Jonathan Charles Howard
* Antony Jameson
* Jack Henri Kaplan
* Gurdev Khush
* Anthony Ledwith
* Frank Matthews Leslie
* Robin Marshall
* Christopher John Marshall
* Paul Mason
* David Miller
* Richard Alan North
* Tim Pedley
* Geoffrey James Pert
* Keith Peters
* Jeremy David Pickett-Heaps
* Richard J. Roberts
* Joseph Rotblat
* Jeremy Sanders
* Robert Malcolm Simmons
* Ian William Murison Smith
* Peter Sneath
* Laszlo Solymar
* Roger Tayler
* Richard Taylor
* Shirley M. Tilghman
* John E. Walker
* Stephen C. West
* Colin Windsor
* Andrew Wyllie

Foreign|

* Ugo Fano
* Gertrude B. Elion
* Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch
* Rita Levi-Montalcini
* Calvin Quate
* John Archibald Wheeler

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF
* WorldCat

National|

* United States
* France
* BnF data
* Netherlands
* Israel
* Belgium

Academics|

* ORCID
* Scopus

Other|

* IdRef
* Yale LUX

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template