| Judy Hirst | |
| Workplaces: | University of Cambridge Scripps Research Institute |
| Alma Mater: | University of Oxford |
| Thesis Title: | Electron transport in redox enzymes |
| Thesis Url: | http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.364043 |
| Thesis Year: | 1997 |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Fraser Armstrong[1] |
| Awards: | Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (2019) |
| Spouses: | )--> |
| Partners: | )--> |
Judy Hirst is a British scientist specialising in mitochondrial biology. She is Director[2] of the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit at the University of Cambridge.
Hirst grew up in Lepton, a village near Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, and attended King James's School and Greenhead College, Huddersfield.[3] She studied for an M.A. in chemistry at St John's College, Oxford, and then was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree at Lincoln College, Oxford, in 1997, for research supervised by Fraser Armstrong on electron transport in redox enzymes.[4]
Following her D.Phil., Hirst held a fellowship at the Scripps Research Institute in California, before moving to Cambridge.
Hirst is a professorial fellow and Director of Studies in Natural Sciences Chemistry at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge,[5] and since 2020 has been director of the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit having previously been its assistant director (2011-2014) and deputy director (2014-2020). Her main research interest is mitochondrial complex I.
Hirst has been published in 2018 on Open questions: respiratory chain supercomplexes – why are they there and what do they do?[6] and working with Justin Fedor, published research on mitochondrial supercomplexes in Cell Metabolism.[7] Recent research in her team includes a study, published in May 2020 by the American Chemical Society Synthetic Biology on 'Adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the cellular energy currency, is essential for life. The ability to provide a constant supply of ATP is therefore crucial for the construction of artificial cells in synthetic biology' which has developed a '
Early in her career, Hirst was awarded EMBO Young Investigator Award (2001) and Young Investigator Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry Inorganic Biochemistry Discussion Group (2006).[9]
Hirst was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2018.[10] She was awarded an Interdisciplinary Prize of the Royal Society of Chemistry in the same year.[11] In 2019, Hirst was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences[12] with the citation:
Hirst was awarded Keilin Memorial Lecture and Medal in 2020 for research which: