Rate My Professor Helen Gleeson

Professor Helen F. Gleeson is the Cavendish Professor of Physics and Head of the Soft Matter Physics Group in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leeds. She graduated with a first-class joint honours degree in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Manchester in 1983 and obtained her PhD in the optics of liquid crystals from the same university in 1986. After her doctorate, she ran an industrially funded research unit at Manchester for three years before joining the Physics department as its first female lecturer in 1989. At Manchester, she held positions including Associate Dean for Research in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences from 2002 to 2007 and Head of the School of Physics and Astronomy from 2008 to 2010. In 2015, she joined the University of Leeds as Cavendish Professor and Head of the Soft Matter Physics Group, serving as Head of School from 2016 to 2021.

Gleeson's research centers on self-ordering and self-assembling materials, particularly liquid crystal phases, employing experimental methods such as time-resolved x-ray scattering, Raman scattering, and electro-optical measurements to link nanoscale molecular properties to macroscopic behavior. Her investigations cover chiral and biaxial liquid crystal phases, ferroelectric systems, liquid crystal elastomers, biosensors using switchable microdroplets, and THz applications, alongside studies of biological systems. Notable inventions include switchable contact lenses developed through the spin-out company Dynamic Vision Systems Ltd., the first graphene-based liquid crystal device in collaboration with Nobel Prize winners Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, and auxetic liquid crystal elastomers, which inspired the founding of Auxetec Ltd. She has authored over 180 journal papers and given more than 350 conference presentations. Her honors include the OBE in 2009 for services to science and outreach to women in physics, British Liquid Crystal Society Hilsum Medal in 2006 and GW Gray Medal in 2013, Holweck Prize in 2012, Rank Prize Lecture, Times Higher Education Outstanding Research Supervisor of the Year in 2018, Alfred Saupe Prize in 2025 from the German Liquid Crystal Society, and the Institute of Physics Polymer Physics Group Founders' Prize in 2026. Gleeson is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics.