Professor Dame Helen Atkinson DBE, FREng

Pro-Vice Chancellor for the School of Aerospace, Transport Systems and Manufacturing | Cranfield University

Dame Helen is Pro-Vice Chancellor for the School of Aerospace, Transport Systems and Manufacturing at Cranfield University. She is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the highest honour for an engineer in the UK. When she was made a Fellow in 2007 she was one of 29 women in a Fellowship of ~1400 men. She was the first woman President of the Engineering Professors’ Council (the body which represents Engineering in universities throughout the UK) in its fifty-year history and has served as a Vice President and trustee of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

In 2010 she won a national award as a Woman of Outstanding Achievement in Science, Engineering and Technology for ‘Leadership and Inspiration to Others’. She chairs ‘This is Engineering’ for the Academy, a hugely successful social media campaign to encourage more young people to consider engineering as a career.