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 Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of the operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials ...

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

, where (since 2007) she is professor and senior research investigator.

Education

Higgins was educated at the Ursuline High School, Wimbledon and

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. It began admitting men in 1994. The colle ...

where she was awarded

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

and

DPhil A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

degrees.

Career

In 1999, Higgins was elected as a member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

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 The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is a British UK Research Councils, Research Council that provides government funding for grants to undertake research and postgraduate degrees in engineering and the physical scienc ...

. Higgins was president of the

Institution of Chemical Engineers The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) is a global professional engineering institution with 30,000 members in 114 countries. It was founded in 1922 and awarded a Royal Charter in 1957. The Institution has offices in Rugby, Warwickshire, ...

2002–03, and president of the

British Association for the Advancement of Science The British Science Association (BSA) is a Charitable organization, charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Scienc ...

2003–04. She was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 1995, and was its foreign secretary 2001–06. She is a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers,

Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) is a British engineering institution with activities including promotion of the development of materials science. It has been a registered charity governed by a royal charter and a member ...

, the

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society and professional association in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the ...

and the

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senio ...

, and the

City and Guilds of London Institute The City and Guilds of London Institute is an educational organisation in the United Kingdom. Founded on 11 November 1878 by the City of London and 16 livery companies to develop a national system of technical education, the institute has be ...

, of which she is Vice-President. She is an honorary fellow of the

Institute of Physics The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a UK-based not-for-profit learned society and professional body that works to advance physics education, physics research, research and applied physics, application. It was founded in 1874 and has a worldwide ...

and of

. She was appointed a CBE in 1996, before being named a dame in the 2001

Queen's Birthday Honours The Birthday Honours, in some Commonwealth realms, mark the King's Official Birthday, reigning monarch's official birthday in each realm by granting various individuals appointment into Order (honour), national or Dynastic order of knighthood, dy ...

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. She holds honorary degrees from a number of UK universities and the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

, Australia. Her scientific work has concentrated on the investigation of polymers with

neutron scattering Neutron scattering, the irregular dispersal of free neutrons by matter, can refer to either the naturally occurring physical process itself or to the man-made experimental techniques that use the natural process for investigating materials. Th ...

. She co-authored a monograph on that field (Higgins & Benoit 1997). In April 2003, she became chair of the

and was succeeded by

John Armitt Sir John Alexander Armitt (born 2 February 1946) is an English civil engineer, and the final chairman of the UK's National Infrastructure Commission. From 2007 Armitt was chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, the body which organised the ...

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

from 1 October 2017 to 30 September 2019.

Awards and honours

Higgins was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1989. Her nomination reads: 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 The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...

until 2010 * Trustee, Daphne Jackson Trust *

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

of the

* Foreign member of the

of the United States *

Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

in 2003 * President,

from 2003 until 2004. * Received an honorary doctorate from

Heriot-Watt University Heriot-Watt University () is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, the world's first mechanics' institute, and was subsequently granted university status by roya ...

in 2000 *She is a foreign member of the

of the United States. She was named

Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(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. *A portrait of her by Tess Barnes was unveiled in June 2014 at Imperial College. * In 1999 she was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) is an award and Scholarship, fellowship for engineers who are recognised by the Royal Academy of Engineering as being the best and brightest engineers, inventors and technologists in United K ...

(FREng). * She was chair of the Royal Society's 2008 State of the Nation Report Steering Group for 'Science and mathematics education 14–19'. * In 2016, she was interviewed by

Jim Al-Khalili Jameel Sadik "Jim" Al-Khalili (; born 20 September 1962) is an Iraqi-British theoretical physicist and science populariser. He is professor of theoretical physics and chair in the public engagement in science at the University of Surrey. He is a ...

on ''

The Life Scientific ''The Life Scientific'' is a BBC Radio 4 science programme, presented by Jim Al-Khalili, in which each episode is dedicated to the biography and work of a living scientist. The programme consists of an interview between Al-Khalili and the featur ...

''. * Awarded the Sir Frank Whittle Medal by the Royal Academy of engineering in 2020 "for her sustained excellence in polymer engineering".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Higgins, Julia 1942 births Living people Academics of Imperial College London British chemists British people of Irish descent British women academics British women scientists Presidents of the Institute of Physics Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Female fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Female fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Presidents of the British Science Association Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry Fellows of the Royal Society Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford 21st-century British women engineers Deans of the City and Guilds College