Susan Perkin is Professor of Physical Chemistry and Fellow of Trinity College, University of Oxford. She completed her DPhil in 2006, working both in Oxford (Jowett Senior Scholarship from Balliol College) and at the Weizmann Institute of Science. She was also a Junior Research Fellow at Merton College from 2005-2008. From 2007-2012 she was RCUK Fellow then Lecturer at UCL in London. Since 2012 she has been Associate Professor then Professor in the Physical & Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, University of Oxford. Current interests include electrostatics in concentrated electrolytes and ionic liquids, electrolytes in confined geometry, molecular mechanisms of friction and lubrication, field effects on confined liquids, phase changes in confined geometry. Susan was awarded a Starting Grant from the ERC (2015), the Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize (2016) from the Royal Society of Chemistry, a Philip Leverhulme Prize (2016) from The Leverhulme Trust, the Soft Matter Lectureship (2018) from the journal Soft Matter, a Consolidator Grant from the ERC (2021), and the Blavatnik Award for Chemistry (2023). From 2018-2025 Susan was member then chair of the RSC Faraday Standing Committee on Conferences; the editorial board of the Faraday Discussions. She is currently member of the Liquid Matter Board of the European Physical Society, and member of the Royal Society Newton International Fellowships committee.
