Julia Goodfellow

Born on 1 July 1951, Julia Goodfellow is a biophysicist known for both her academic achievements and her executive leadership. After earning her PhD in biophysics in 1973 at the Open University’s Oxford Research Unit, Goodfellow did a postdoc at Stanford University in the US. In 1980 she returned to the UK to take up a position as research officer in the crystallography department of Birkbeck College, where she would work for the next two decades. Her research centered on the role of water in protein structure. In 1996 she became head of the crystallography department, and in 1998 she became vice master of the college. In 2002 Goodfellow left Birkbeck to take on the position of chief executive of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, becoming the first woman to serve in that role on a UK research council. She left the BBSRC in 2007 to become vice chancellor of the University of Kent, where she remained until her retirement in 2017. She also served as chair of the British Science Association (2009–14) and president of Universities UK (2015–17), and in 2011 she was appointed to both the Science and Technology Facilities Council and Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology. In 2018 Goodfellow became the third president of the Royal Society of Biology, established in 2009. She is a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Institute of Biology, the Institute of Physics, and the Royal College of Arts and an honorary member of the Biochemical Society. In 2010 she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her services to science. (Photo credit: University of Kent)

Date in History: 1 July 1951