Judith Patricia Armitage (born 1951) is a British molecular and cellular

biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and Cell (biology), cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of ...

at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

Early life and education

Armitage was born on 21 February 1951 in Shelley,

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, England. She attended Selby Girls' High School, an all-female

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

, then located in the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

. In her sixth form, the school became the co-educational Selby Grammar School. Armitage earned a BSc in Microbiology at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

in 1972, and was awarded a PhD in 1976 for research on the bacterium

Proteus mirabilis ''Proteus mirabilis'' is a Gram-negative, facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped bacterium. It shows swarming motility and urease activity. ''P. mirabilis'' causes 90% of all ''Proteus'' infections in humans. It is widely distributed in soil and ...

. She remained at UCL in the laboratory of Micheal Evans for her postdoctoral work.

Research and career

Armitage's research is largely based on the motion of bacteria by flagellar rotation and the

chemotactic Chemotaxis (from '' chemo-'' + ''taxis'') is the movement of an organism or entity in response to a chemical stimulus. Somatic cells, bacteria, and other single-cell or multicellular organisms direct their movements according to certain chemical ...

mechanisms used to control that motion. Armitage was appointed Lecturer in Biochemistiry at Oxford in 1985 and was awarded the

Title of Distinction The University of Oxford introduced Titles of Distinction for senior academics in the 1990s. These are not established chairs, which are posts funded by endowment for academics with a distinguished career in British and European universities. Howeve ...

of Professor of Biochemistry in 1996. Armitage is a fellow of

Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the Colleges of Oxford University, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the ...

and has served as Director of the Oxford University Centre for Integrative

Systems Biology Systems biology is the computational modeling, computational and mathematical analysis and modeling of complex biological systems. It is a biology-based interdisciplinary field of study that focuses on complex interactions within biological syst ...

since 2006. Armitage was elected President of the

Microbiology Society The Microbiology Society (previously the Society for General Microbiology) is a learned society based in the United Kingdom with a worldwide membership based in universities, industry, hospitals, research institutes and schools. It is the large ...

for 2019.

Awards and honours

Armitage was awarded a

Lister Institute The Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, informally known as the Lister Institute, was established as a research institute (the British Institute of Preventive Medicine) in 1891, with bacteriologist Marc Armand Ruffer as its first director, us ...

Research Fellowship in 1982. In 2010 Armitage was elected a member of the

European Molecular Biology Organisation The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is a professional, non-profit organization of more than 1,800 life scientists. Its goal is to promote research in life science and enable international exchange between scientists. It co-funds cour ...

and in 2011 was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Microbiology The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), originally the Society of American Bacteriologists, is a professional organization for scientists who study viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa as well as other aspects of microbiology. It wa ...

and a

Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology Fellowship of the Royal Society of Biology (FRSB), previously Fellowship of the Society of Biology (FSB), is an award and fellowship granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Biology has adjudged to have made a "prominent contribution to ...

. Armitage was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2013. Her nomination reads: In January 2019 she was elected president of the

for a term of three years.

References

Living people 1951 births Academics of the University of Oxford Alumni of University College London British biochemists Fellows of Merton College, Oxford Female Fellows of the Royal Society People from Selby Women biochemists 20th-century British women scientists 21st-century British women scientists Fellows of the American Academy of Microbiology {{UK-scientist-stub