Julia Higgins is our leading exponent of science’s two great glories: the uniquely human capacity to perceive the subtle structures that lie beneath the surface phenomena of the physical world, and in so doing to create national and international communities of mutual trust, collaboration and friendship.

After a degree in physics and a DPhil at Oxford, Julia Higgins taught physics at Mexborough Grammar School, before becoming a Science Council Research Fellow in Chemistry at the University of Manchester. Early in her scientific career, she saw the promise of a new window into matter provided by directed beams of neutrons. As uncharged particles they pass unperturbed through a solid’s or liquid’s dense electron clouds, often penetrating far beyond the range of light or X-rays. However, their gentle diffraction by the atoms’ nuclei can reveal both molecular structure and motion. Her pioneering work on giant molecular chains of polymeric materials took her to Strasbourg, then Grenoble, before taking up a permanent academic post at the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College in 1976. She has been their Professor of Polymer Science since 1989 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1995.

Her interest in the remarkable structures produced by blends of two polymers that may spontaneously de-mix sparked a fruitful collaboration with materials scientists at ICI, and with the polymer theory groups here in Leeds and latterly at Durham. She continues her generous support for the Leeds-Bradford-Durham “Polymer IRC” as the enthusiastic chair of its external advisory board.

It is good to have friends in high places! I do not think there is a high-level scientific body in the UK on which she does not serve: member of the Council of Science and Technology, Chair of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and The Royal Society’s Foreign Secretary. She also chairs the advisory committee for the Athena Project, a UK wide initiative to advance women in science, engineering and technology. These services, alongside her many scientific contributions, were recognised publicly when she was made a Dame in 2001. Within the scientific community, it has long been the case that respect for her scientific achievement has been accompanied by affection and gratitude.