Vice-President for Learning and Skills: Dr Judith Hillier FInstP

Judith, Associate Professor of Science Education (Physics), has been at the University of Oxford Department of Education since 2007, where she is Deputy PGCE Course Director and Lead PGCE Science Tutor. She also teaches on the master’s in learning and teaching and the master’s in teacher education, and is a Fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford.

Previously, after completing a degree in physics at the University of St Andrews and her PhD in condensed matter physics from the University of Leeds and the Institut Laue-Langevin, Grenoble, Judith studied on the Oxford PGCE programme and taught for several years in an Oxfordshire comprehensive school, becoming Key Stage 3 Co-ordinator.

Judith’s research interests lie in the education of science teachers, the recruitment and retention of physics teachers, the role of language in the development of scientific explanations in the classroom, and gender and diversity in STEM education.

In 2021 she was awarded the Marie Curie-Sklodowska Medal and Prize by the IOP for her significant contribution to the support of women in physics through her work with the Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics, and to the education of teachers of physics.