Dawn Bonfield MBE, from the Department of Engineering, has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. The Academy’s fellowship recognises the most outstanding engineers for their contribution to the profession.

Dawn joined King’s in January 2021 as Royal Society Entrepreneur in Residence, working to embed sustainable development goals and entrepreneurship in engineering education. She is a leading champion of women in engineering and is a former President and CEO of the Women’s Engineering Society. She has developed an emerging discipline of inclusive engineering, which limits bias and discrimination in our engineering outputs, and uses engineering and technology to address inequality. At King’s Dawn works with undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Commenting on her Royal Academy Fellowship, Dawn said:

"I am absolutely delighted to have been recognised as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and am very much looking forward to continuing the work I have been doing around sustainability and inclusive outcomes of engineering in collaboration with King’s. This is such a big part of the work of the Academy through their strategic focus on creating a sustainable society and an inclusive economy, as well as being integral to the vision of King’s, and I am grateful too to the Royal Society for their sponsorship of the Entrepreneur in Residency."

Professor Bashir M. Al-Hashimi, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences, commented:

"This is the highest accolade for engineers in the UK and it is a testament to Dawn’s impactful and sustained innovative work in making engineering a more inclusive profession. Dawn joined our Department of Engineering as this was getting established and her work and thinking is already benefiting students, staff and the Department."