Hilary Margaret Lappin-Scott OBE FLS FLSW PFHEA FAAM FRSB (born 1955) is a British microbiologist whose field of research is microbial biofilms.

In 2009 Hilary was elected as the second female President of the Society for General Microbiology (SGM) in 70 years and served in this role until 2012.

She has supervised 50 students through their PhDs, edited 7 textbooks and published extensively in the area of microbial biofilms.

She served as the Scientific Meetings Officer in 2004, introducing a new Division theme structure for conference planning and establishing the SGM Prize Medal.

[10] More recently she has created and Chairs the Equality and Diversity group of the SGM, which aims to remove barriers to women in microbiology.

[15] She presented a TEDx lecture in 2016 entitled "MOVE OVER BOYS: Why we need more girls/women in STEM Careers" about gender equality in science.