STFC Executive Chair
Professor Michele Dougherty CBE FRS FRAS is Executive Chair of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).
Michele took up the position of STFC Executive Chair in January 2025. STFC is one of the nine councils of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), which supports research in astronomy, physics, computational science and space science, and operates world class research facilities for the UK.
Michele is a professor of space physics and former Head of the Physics Department at Imperial College London. Michele led unmanned exploratory missions to Saturn and Jupiter and was the principal investigator of the magnetometer instrument onboard the Cassini mission to Saturn. She is principal investigator of the magnetometer for the European Space Agency’s JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) that launched in April 2023.
Michele is a Fellow of the Royal Society. In addition to being awarded the Royal Astronomical Society Geophysics Gold medal in 2017, and a CBE in the 2018 New Year’s Honours List, she has also been awarded the Institute of Physics Richard Glazebrook Gold Medal and Prize. She is President-Elect of the Institute of Physics and will formally take up the role of President in autumn 2025.
Last updated: 17 February 2025