Honorary Fellows: Professor Dame Julia Higgins
Professor Higgins has been a key figure in driving forward research into molecular behaviour of polymeric materials using neutron scattering, and her experiments have cast new light on the thermodynamics of polymer blends.
Added to her notable contributions to polymer physics, she has supported the scientific community through serving on and chairing a wide variety of important committees. She was chair of EPSRC 2002 to 2007, chair of the 2008 RAE Physical Sciences Panel and foreign secretary of the Royal Society 2001 to 2006.
In 2006 Dame Julia Higgins was elected to Honorary Fellowship of the Institute of Physics in recognition of her work on the dynamic properties of polymers and her imaginative use of neutron spectroscopy.