Judith Ann Kathleen Howard^[3] CBE FRS (née Duckworth; 21 October 1945 in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire) is a British chemist, crystallographer and Professor of Chemistry at Durham University.^[4][5][6]

Early life and education

Judith Howard attended Salisbury Grammar School for girls, and later attended University of Bristol in 1963 to study chemistry.^[7]

As a final year undergraduate, Howard worked on the structure of the compound, tin tetra-iron-tetra carbonyl, which was the basis of her very first published work.^[3]

She graduated from University of Bristol with a Bachelor of Science degree and was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy^[8] degree from the University of Oxford where she was a student at Somerville College, Oxford and studied the structure of insulin supervised by Dorothy Hodgkin.^[7]

Career and research

In 1991 Howard moved to become Professor of Crystallography at Durham University.^[7] She has co-authored over 1,500 scientific publications, resulting in a H-index of 82.^[9]

Howard's research is in X-ray crystallography. Her interests include in-situ crystallisation of liquids, ultra-low temperature crystallography, high pressure crystallography, experimental charge density analysis, solid-state reactions the study of non-linear optical materials and magnetically interesting materials.^[4]

Howard has created instruments that allow scientists to help advance and prove theories in the field of X-ray crystallography.^[10] She is the chairperson of the Olexsys software for refinement of crystallographic data.^[11]

Prolific in her contributions to science, with over 1,500 publications to her name,^[10] Judith actively participates in committees and conferences worldwide. She was the first woman to head a five-star chemistry department (at the University of Durham). She was one of the founder members of the British Crystallographic Association where she served as Secretary from 1985-1987 and President from 1992-1996.

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