Dame Julia Higgins
Biographical Information
Dame Julia Higgins is Principal of the Faculty of Engineering at Imperial College, London,
Ex-Foreign Secretary and Vice President of the Royal Society, UK. She is also WKD
Scientist in Residence and moderator of the 2006 Crans-Montana WKD, and member of
the International Scientific Board. Julia Higgins obtained her doctorate in physical chemistry
at Oxford in 1968. She has been on the academic staff of Imperial College since 1976
and was appointed to a professorship in 1989. Her research involves the use of neutron
scattering to study the behaviour of complex materials in terms of their molecular structure,
organisation and motion. She has chaired the British Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council and the British Association for the Advancement of Science and is
a foreign member of the US National Academy of Engineering. Professor Higgins is both
a leader in her own field and a vociferous advocate of the need for continuous dialogue
between science as an enterprise and society as a larger whole. She has raised the collective
consciousness of the responsibilities of being a scientist in the modern world and has
also been instrumental in bringing consideration of gender issues in European science
to the political forefront. Among the numerous distinctions Julia Higgins has received in
recognition of her contributions as a public ambassador for Science, she was made a Dame
of the British Empire in 2001, and a Chevalier de la legion d’Honneur in 2004. In October
2006 she became Principal of the Engineering Faculty at Imperial College, London. Her
remarkable scientific credentials and her long-standing involvement with humanist issues
made her the outstanding choice to become the first “Scientist in Residence” of the WKD
“Foundation” and the moderator of its first symposium. |
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