New Year’s Honours low on engineering endeavour 02 January 2014

Professor Helen Atkinson, head of the Department of Engineering at the University of Leicester and vice president of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Iain Gray, chief executive of the Technology Strategy Board, prof Stephen Cannon, formerly director of the Poynting Institute and Qinetiq, George Morgan, chairman of Pektron, and Roy Williams, equipment examiner with the Ministry of Defence, are among the few engineers named in the 2014 New Year's Honours list.

Perhaps most notable among these few is prof Atkinson (pictured), who was made a CBE for services to engineering and education. She chairs the Standing Committee on Education and Training for the Royal Academy of Engineering, and was elected the first woman president of the Engineering Professors' Council in its 50 year history.

Prof Atkinson has a first class degree from the University of Cambridge (Girton College), a PhD from Imperial and an honorary doctorate from the University of Liège, in Belgium. She is a visiting professor at Arts et Métier ParisTech and at the General Research Institute for Non-Ferrous Metals, in Beijing.

She is a fellow of the RAE, and when elected in 2007 was one of just 29 women Fellows alongside 1,400 men. She is also a fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, a fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and a chartered engineer.

"I am tremendously honoured to be made CBE," says Professor Atkinson.

"Engineering is crucial to our economy and quality of life. It enables transport, communication, power generation, energy security, combating climate change through technology and medical care," she continues.

"It also gives you your laptop, your iphone and the internet. I am proud to be involved in the formation of professional engineers, at the University of Leicester, through the Royal Academy of Engineering and through the Engineering Professors' Council."

Brian Tinham

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