Dame Julia is currently Chair of Public Health England and President of the Royal Society of Biology. She was Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Kent from 2007 until 2017, the first female President of Universities UK and a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology. She is a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, Royal Society of Biology and the Institute of Physics and is an honorary member of the Biochemical Society. Julia’s scientific studies pioneered the use of computational methods to study the structures of large biologically important molecules. She became Professor of Biomolecular Sciences in 1995 at Birkbeck, University of London, where she was appointed Vice-Master from 1998 –2002. Before joining the University of Kent, Julia was Chief Executive of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).