Background
Yellowlees was born in 1953 in London, moving to Edinburgh at the age of 9 and attending Street Hilary"s Girls" School. Her father worked for Rank Hovis McDougall, and she has two sisters.
Yellowlees was born in 1953 in London, moving to Edinburgh at the age of 9 and attending Street Hilary"s Girls" School. Her father worked for Rank Hovis McDougall, and she has two sisters.
She completed her higher education at the University of Edinburgh, gaining a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Physics in 1975, and Doctor of Philosophy in Inorganic Electrochemistry in 1983.
She was the only woman graduate in her undergraduate class. She was the first female head of chemistry in the university. She is also Vice-Principal of the University (again the first female one) and Head of the College of Science and Engineering.
Yellowlees was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2005 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2012. She is also a Fellow of the Institute of Physics. To mark the International Year of Chemistry, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry selected 25 women including Yellowlees for the Distinguished Women Chemistry/Chemical Engineering Award. She took over the presidency of the Royal Society of Chemistry on 4 July 2012 for a two-year term (she was succeeded by Professor Dominic Tildesley). The National Portrait Gallery has two portraits of her. There is also a painting of her by Peter Edwards in Burlington House, the headquarters of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Yellowlees was appointed Administration Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2005 for services to science and Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to chemistry. Yellowlees received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 2012. Yellowlees was named the University of Edinburgh Alumnus of the Year 2013 in honour of her research, leadership and her work as an advocate for women in Science Technology Engineering And Mathematics subjects.
