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Personalities

Institute of Physics names next chief executive

04 Mar 2002

Julia King of Rolls-Royce has been appointed as the next chief executive of the Institute of Physics. Currently director of marine engineering and technology at Roll-Royce, King has strong links with both academia and industry, and takes a keen interest in science education. She will succeed current boss Alun Jones in September.

King graduated in natural sciences at Cambridge University, where she also obtained her PhD in materials. She won a Rolls-Royce research fellowship – also at Cambridge – before accepting a lectureship at Nottingham University. King then moved back to Cambridge to take up one of the first Royal Academy of Engineering senior research fellowships and a university lectureship. She has also been a visiting professor at the universities of Swansea and Newcastle. Since 1994 King has held a series of senior positions in R&D.

Sir Peter Williams, president of the Institute, said he was “very pleased” that a senior industrialist had been appointed as chief executive. “At a time when the links between academia and industry and between science and engineering have been recognised as vital, I can think of no-one better suited to succeed Alun”, he said.

King emphasized that her own career – built on the application of science to engineering – closely reflects one of the central aims of the Institute. “I am very excited to be joining the Institute with its focus on leading-edge physics, industry and the world of education”, she said.

King is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and has been awarded the CBE. She has also received a number of awards for her research.

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