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Dr Judith Hillier

Fellow, Official Fellow

Associate Professor of Science Education (Physics) Elected Vice-President for Learning and Skills, Institute of Physics Council

Department of Education

PhD (Leeds); MSci (St Andrews); PGCE (Oxford)

Judith, Associate Professor of Science Education (Physics), has been at the University of Oxford Department of Education since 2007, where she is PGCE Course Director. She also teaches on the Master’s in Learning and Teaching and the Master’s in Teacher Education, and has been a Fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford, since 2010. In October 2024 Judith was appointed Vice-President for Learning and Skills at the Institute of Physics.

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.

“I have fond memories of my time as a Kellogg student; in fact two of the friends I made at Matriculation later became the godparents of my elder child. When I returned to academia, I was delighted to also return to Kellogg as a Fellow.”