She has been awarded the Kate Gleason Award for ‘significant contributions to advance gas turbine engine technology and the engineering science of combustion and acoustics; and for outstanding leadership in industry-university cooperative research and international engineering education.’

Established in 2011, the award recognises a female engineer who is a highly successful entrepreneur in a field of engineering or who has had a lifetime of achievement in the engineering profession. Professor Dowling received it at the Society's annual Honours Assembly in San Diego.

Professor Dowling's research is primarily in the fields of combustion, acoustics and vibration, and is aimed at low-emission combustion and quiet vehicles. Her research on unsteady combustion provides insight and models that are enabling gas turbine manufacturers to avoid damaging instabilities in low-emission combustors. In 2001, she received a Best Technical Paper Award from the ASME International Gas Turbine Institute's Combustion and Fuels Committee.

The video clip of the ASME tribute to Professor Dowling can be viewed here.

ASME was founded in 1880 as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a not-for-profit professional organisation that enables collaboration, knowledge sharing and skill development across all engineering disciplines, while promoting the vital role of the engineer in society.