Judy Armitage
{{Short description|British biochemist and bacteriologist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Judy Armitage
| birth_name = Judith Patricia Armitage
| image =
| image_size =
| alt =
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| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1951|02|21|df=y}}
| birth_place = Shelley, West Riding of Yorkshire, England.
| death_date =
| death_place =
| fields = Molecular and cellular biochemistry
| known_for = The study of chemotactic mechanisms to control bacterial motion
| workplaces = University of Oxford
University College London
Merton College, Oxford
| alma_mater = University College London
| thesis_title = Comparative biochemistry and physiology of the short and long forms of Proteus mirabilis
| thesis_url = http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.448087
| thesis_year = 1976
| spouse = John Jefferys
| children = 2
}}
Judith Patricia Armitage {{post-nominals|post-noms=FRS}} (born 1951) is a British molecular and cellular biochemist at the University of Oxford.{{cite web |title=Judith Patricia ARMITAGE personal appointments – Find and update company information – GOV.UK |url=https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/QMQE0jkgGNvshzrKn70oT7FwlEY/appointments |access-date=17 January 2025 |website=find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk }}
Early life and education
Armitage was born on 21 February 1951 in Shelley, Yorkshire, England.{{cite web |title=Armitage, Prof. Judith Patricia, (born 21 Feb. 1951), Professor of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, since 1996; Fellow, Merton College, Oxford, since 1996 |website=Who's Who 2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-258323 |doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u258323 |date=1 December 2019|isbn=978-0-19-954088-4 }} She attended Selby Girls' High School, an all-girl grammar school, then located in the West Riding of Yorkshire. In her sixth form, the school became the co-educational Selby Grammar School.
Armitage earned a BSc in microbiology at University College London in 1972, and was awarded a PhD in 1976 for research on the bacterium Proteus mirabilis.{{cite thesis |degree=PhD |first=Judy|last=Armitage |title=Comparative biochemistry and physiology of the short and long forms of Proteus mirabilis |publisher=University College London |date=1976|url=http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.448087|author-link=Judy Armitage}} She remained at UCL in the laboratory of Micheal Evans for her postdoctoral work.{{cite web |last1=Armitage |first1=Judy |title=Professor Judith Armitage |url=https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/diversity-in-science/parent-carer-scientist/judith-armitage/ |website=Royal Society |access-date=10 November 2019}}
Research and career
Armitage's research is largely based on the motion of bacteria by flagellar rotation and the chemotactic mechanisms used to control that motion.[http://www.bioch.ox.ac.uk/aspsite/index.asp?pageid=565 Armitage, Judy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108014438/http://www.bioch.ox.ac.uk/aspsite/index.asp?pageid=565 |date=8 November 2017 }} Profile at the University of Oxford Armitage was appointed Lecturer in Biochemistiry at Oxford in 1985 and was awarded the Title of Distinction of Professor of Biochemistry in 1996. Armitage is a fellow of Merton College, Oxford[http://www.merton.ox.ac.uk/fellows_and_research/armitage.shtml Armitage, Judy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130618062203/http://www.merton.ox.ac.uk/fellows_and_research/armitage.shtml |date=18 June 2013 }} Profile at Merton College and has served as Director of the Oxford University Centre for Integrative Systems Biology since 2006.{{cite web |title=Professor Judy Armitage |url=https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/diversity-in-science/parent-carer-scientist/judith-armitage/ |access-date=10 November 2019}}[http://www.sysbio.ox.ac.uk/ Home Page] Oxford University Centre for Integrative Systems Biology{{cite journal | last1 = Wadhams | first1 = G. H. | last2 = Armitage | first2 = J. P. | doi = 10.1038/nrm1524 | title = Making sense of it all: Bacterial chemotaxis | journal = Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology | volume = 5 | issue = 12 | pages = 1024–1037 | year = 2004 | pmid = 15573139| s2cid = 205493118 }}{{cite book | last1 = Armitage | first1 = J. P. | doi = 10.1016/S0065-2911(08)60168-X | title = Bacterial Tactic Responses | series = Advances in Microbial Physiology | volume = 41 | pages = 229–289 | year = 1999 | pmid = 10500847 | isbn = 9780120277414 }}{{AcademicSearch|2977068}}
Armitage was elected President of the Microbiology Society for 2019.{{cite web|url=https://www.merton.ox.ac.uk/news/professor-judith-armitage-named-next-president-microbiology-society|title=Professor Judith Armitage named as next President of the Microbiology Society {{!}} www.merton.ox.ac.uk|website=www.merton.ox.ac.uk|access-date=28 February 2019}}
Awards and honours
Armitage was awarded a Lister Institute Research Fellowship in 1982.{{cite web |title=Lister Institute Former Fellows |url=https://www.lister-institute.org.uk/former-fellows/ |access-date=10 November 2019}}
In 2010 Armitage was elected a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation{{cite web |title=EMBO Member Profile for Judith P. Armitage |url=https://people.embo.org/profile/judith-p-armitage |access-date=10 November 2019}} and in 2011 was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology.
Armitage was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2013. Her nomination reads:{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140820022113/https://royalsociety.org/people/fellowship/2013/judith-armitage/|archive-date=20 August 2014|url=https://royalsociety.org/people/fellowship/2013/judith-armitage/|title=Professor Judith Armitage FRS|publisher=Royal Society|location=London}}
{{Blockquote|Judith Armitage is distinguished for pioneering contributions to the understanding of spatio-temporal complexity and cellular organisation in bacteria. Combining biophysics and in vivo light microscopy with molecular genetics she discovered a new protein partitioning system that exerts spatial control over sensory signalling pathways. Co-crystal structural studies of a sensory kinase and its cognate response regulator directly revealed single amino acid changes involved in pathway discrimination. The first direct measurements of the dynamics of rotor and stator proteins in rotating flagellar motors revealed exchange with free protein pools, an observation which fundamentally changed our understanding of bacterial motility and behaviour.}}
In January 2019 she was elected president of the Microbiology Society for a term of three years.{{cite web |title=PROFESSOR JUDITH ARMITAGE FRS TO BE NEW MICROBIOLOGY SOCIETY PRESIDENT |url=https://microbiologysociety.org/publication/past-issues/hiv-aids/article/professor-judith-armitage-frs-to-be-new-microbiology-society-president.html |website=The Microbiology Society |access-date=4 May 2021}}
References
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Category:Academics of the University of Oxford
Category:Alumni of University College London
Category:Fellows of Merton College, Oxford
Category:Women fellows of the Royal Society
Category:British women biochemists
Category:20th-century British women scientists