Professor Judith Phillips OBE

Judith Phillips is Deputy Principal (Research) at the University of Stirling and Professor of Gerontology. Judith was appointed as Research Director for the Healthy Ageing Challenge delivered by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) in January 2020. Her research interests are in the social, behavioural and environmental aspects of ageing.

Before joining the University, Judith Phillips was Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Director of the Research Institute for Applied Social Sciences at Swansea University which sought to strengthen social sciences across the University and embed a social science perspective in Engineering and Medicine. She was also Director of the Centre for Ageing and Dementia Research for Wales and the School for Social Care Research in Wales.

Following a geography degree at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, she went to study at Stockholm University, Jesus College, Oxford and UEA, Norwich, where she worked as a researcher and a lecturer before joining the Centre for Social Gerontology at the University of Keele in 1993. Judith returned to Wales in 2004 to set up the Centre for Innovative Ageing at Swansea University.

She holds several Fellowships in recognition of her contribution to Gerontology including a Gerontological Society of America Fellowship since 2004 in recognition of outstanding achievement and exemplary contributions to the field of Gerontology. Judith has been an active member of the British Society of Gerontology for 40 years and was its President between 2008-10. In 2021 she was awarded BSG’s highest honour - the Outstanding Achievement Award in recognition of her significant and lasting contribution to Gerontology. In 2013, Professor Phillips was awarded an OBE for services to older people.

Her professional standing is reflected in her election to various Councils - The Academy of Social Sciences (and policy lead on Council) since 2019; The Learned Society of Wales (2015-2018); and the Global Social Initiative on Ageing (Deputy Director, since 2017)

Professor Phillips has been highly active in shaping the UK’s gerontological research landscape and her applied research has impacted on government policy. Professor Phillips has a track record of research grant capture across many disciplines. Her many publications on social work and older people are extensively used by students, with translations made into several languages. She has extensive links with both the Welsh and UK governments, social services departments and business. In 2016 Professor Phillips chaired the Welsh Government Expert group on Housing an Ageing Population the recommendations of which have been incorporated into the Welsh Government Strategy for Older People 2021.