Department of Engineering / News / Professor Dame Ann Dowling receives honorary degrees

Department of Engineering

Professor Dame Ann Dowling receives honorary degrees

Professor Dame Ann Dowling receives honorary degrees

The honorands at Encaenia, 2015 From left: Professor Sir Richard Evans, Professor Dame Ann Dowling, Professor Wallace Broecker, Professor Ruth Simmons, Dame Hilary Mantel & Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub

Congratulations to Professor Dame Ann Dowling who last year received honorary degrees from Oxford, Leeds, Queen's University Belfast, London South Bank University and Heriot-Watt.

Professor Dame Ann Dowling read for undergraduate and graduate degrees in mathematics and a doctorate in engineering at the University of Cambridge. She has spent her career at that institution, rising to become its first female Professor of Mechanical Engineering and the first woman to head the Department of Engineering. Her research focuses on efficient, low-emission combustion for aero and industrial gas turbines and low-noise vehicles, especially aircraft and cars.

Her publications range from problem-defining fundamental papers to descriptions of the technology behind successful practical applications. She has led major research collaborations into some of the big issues facing modern societies, such as the Energy Efficient Cities initiative and the Silent Aircraft Initiative. She ran the University Gas Turbine Partnership with Rolls–Royce for some 13 years, and has held visiting posts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology.

In 2014 she was appointed President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the first woman to hold that post. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Foreign Member of the US National Academy of Engineering and of the French Academy of Sciences, and an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and of the Institution of Engineering Designers.

She has served on a number of industry and government advisory committees. She is a non-executive director of BP plc and chairs their Technical Advisory Committee. She is also a non-executive member of the board of the UK’s Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. A member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology, Professor Dowling chaired the Physical Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering Panel in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014. In 2002 she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to mechanical engineering, and was elevated to Dame Commander five years later for services to science.

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