Brigid R. Heywood[1] (born 1956 or 1957)[2] is a British/Australian academic and biological scientist,[3] who was Vice-Chancellor of the University of New England (UNE) in Australia from 2019 until she resigned after criminal charges were laid against her in 2022.

[15][16][17][18] The third woman in this role, following Ingrid Moses (1997–2005) and Annabelle Duncan (2014–2019),[19] However, UNE accepted her resignation in August 2022 after she was formally charged with allegedly assaulting a teenage schoolgirl at a club in Armidale on 8 March 2022.

Subsequently, the application of crystal science to issues ranging from normal and dystrophic mineralisation processes, structure-function relationships in inorganic materials, the development of novel strategies to control crystal formation and the formation of novel, functional inorganic-organic hybrids for drug delivery have evolved as key research topics within her multidisciplinary research programme".

[23] On 28 September 2021, she was appointed as a member of the Risk & Audit Committee of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), the home of Australia’s most significant landmark and national infrastructure for research.

[3][24] At Armidale Local Court on 26 September 2022, a not guilty plea was entered on behalf of Heywood to charges relating to "common assault and offensive behaviour near a public place or school" on 8 March 2022.