Honorary Fellows: Professor Gillian Gehring, OBE
University of Sheffield
Professor Gillian Gehring has had a long and distinguished career studying magnetism. Even since her retirement she has continued to be extraordinarily productive.
She has made seminal contributions to the field with particular emphasis on the theory of heavy-fermion effects in rare earth metals, to the Density Matrix Remormalisation Group, and through her work on the co-operative Jahn-Teller effect inspired a generation of new experiments.
Additionally, she has been an inspiring role model for young women and she has worked tirelessly to promote and encourage women to stay in physics. She was only the second woman to become a professor of physics in the UK.
She was a member of the working party that led to the publication Rising Tide in 2005.
She has been acting chair of the Gender Equality working group for the EPS and chair of the IOP Steering Committee for Site visits to university physics departments to advise on best practice for women physicists that started in 2003. She has led the project to provide materials for the use of physicists who visit primary schools and she was elected to Honorary Fellowship of the EPS in 2007.