Judy Hirst facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Judy Hirst
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| Education |
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| Alma mater | University of Oxford |
| Known for | Research on mitochondria |
| Awards | Fellow of the Royal Society (2018) Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (2019) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mitochondrial biology |
| Institutions | University of Cambridge Scripps Research Institute |
| Thesis | Electron transport in redox enzymes (1997) |
| Doctoral advisor | Fraser Armstrong |
Judy Hirst is a British scientist. She studies tiny parts of our cells called mitochondria. These are like the powerhouses of our cells. She is currently the Director of the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit at the University of Cambridge.
About Judy Hirst
Early Life and School
Judy Hirst grew up in a village called Lepton, near Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, England. She went to King James's School and later to Greenhead College.
She then went to St John's College, Oxford, to study chemistry. After that, she earned her Ph.D. degree in 1997 from Lincoln College, Oxford. Her research there was about how electrons move in special proteins called enzymes.
Her Work and Research
After finishing her Ph.D., Judy Hirst worked as a researcher at the Scripps Research Institute in California. Later, she moved to Cambridge, England.
As of 2023, Judy Hirst is a professor at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Since 2020, she has been the director of the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit. Before that, she was the assistant director and then the deputy director of the unit.
Her main research focuses on something called mitochondrial complex I. This is a very important part of the mitochondria that helps cells make energy. She studies how it works and what happens when it doesn't work correctly.
Her team also researches how cells create energy. For example, they have looked into how cells make ATP. ATP is like the energy currency for all living things. Her team has even created a simple system to show how cells make and use energy.
Awards and Recognition
Judy Hirst has received several important awards for her scientific work. Early in her career, she won the Young Investigator Award from the EMBO in 2001. She also received a Young Investigator Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2006.
In 2018, she was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). This is a very high honor for scientists in the United Kingdom. In the same year, she also received an Interdisciplinary Prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry. In 2019, she became a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
