Judith Phillips is Professor of Social and Environmental Gerontology within the Faculty of Social Sciences. Judith held the position of Deputy Principal for Research at Stirling from 2016 to 2024. Alongside her DP role between 2020 and 2024, Judith was Research Director for the Healthy Ageing Challenge delivered by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). 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 of the Academy of Social Sciences (2019-2025); The Learned Society of Wales (2015-2018); Global Social Initiative on Ageing (Deputy Director, since 2017). She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.