Dawn Bonfield

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Dawn Bonfield MBE FREng FICE FIStructE FIMMM FWES [1] is a materials engineer and founder and director of Towards Vision, [2] a company which aims to work towards a vision of diversity and inclusion in engineering. She is past president and former chief executive of the Women's Engineering Society (WES), [3] [4] and in 2018 was an ambassador for the Year of Engineering, [5] [6] promoting engineering careers through a roadshow aimed at meeting parents.

Contents

Career

A materials engineer by profession, training and experience - having studied materials science at Bath University - Bonfield has worked at AERE Harwell, Citroen Research Centre (Paris), British Aerospace (Bristol), MBDA (Stevenage), and the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (London). [3]

In 2017, Bonfield was appointed a Visiting Professor of Inclusive Engineers at Aston University, [7] developing undergraduate content on inclusive engineering to equip the next generation of engineers with the skills and competencies they need to be inclusive. She also co-founded IncEng in 2017, [8] a platform to bring together under-represented groups in engineering.

Activism

Bonfield joined the council of the Women's Engineering Society in 2011 and was elected president in 2014. [9] She then became CEO in 2015. [3] Bonfield was the founder of National Women in Engineering Day in 2014 and in 2015 established the inaugural 50 Women in Engineering List with the Daily Telegraph. [3] [10] She established and still runs the "Magnificent Women" schools outreach project and website, [11] and the Sparxx project to support STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) students. [12] She is a STEM ambassador who regularly promotes engineering and materials in schools.

Awards

In 2015 Bonfield won a WISE Award [13] and an Association Congress Award for the INWED campaign, [6] and in 2016 she won the SEMTA Skills Diversity Award. [14] In 2016 she was a Finalist in the Airbus GEDC Diversity Award, [15] and in 2017 she won the Women's Business Council STEM 'Starting Out' award. [16]

She was made MBE in the 2016 Queen's Birthday Honours list [17] [18] for 'Services to the promotion of diversity in engineering'.

Membership of groups

Bonfield has been a member of the following groups:

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