|
Julia Higgins
Professor of Polymer Science, Imperial College, London; Vice-President and Foreign Secretary of the Royal society of Great Britain.
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. Julia is not
only a leader in her own field, also a vociferous advocate of the need
for continuous dialogue between science as an enterprise and society as
a larger whole. She has pioneered exploration 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 became a Dame of the British Empire in 2001, and a
Chevalier de la legion d'Honneur in 2004. In October 2006 she will take
up the post of 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. Courtesy of Imperial College, London |
