Dame Sue Ion inducted as an Honorary Fellow

The eminent nuclear engineer joins an illustrious list of Honorary Fellows of the Institution.

At the Ordinary Meeting held in October, Dr Dame Sue Ion DBE FREng accepted Honorary Fellowship, presented by President of the Institution, Jon Hilton. Chief Executive Stephen Tetlow MBE gave the citation.

Dame Sue Ion is one of the UK’s foremost nuclear engineers and has long been at the forefront of government decisions, helping to advise on long-term strategic energy policies. She is internationally recognised as a global expert in nuclear engineering.

Dame Sue said: “It was with great pleasure that I accepted Honorary Fellowship of the Institution. To be recognised in such a way by my peers in the engineering sector, and certainly when I viewed the very well known and esteemed engineers who have been honoured before me, I was very humbled.

"In the nuclear sector, to have my name follow the likes of Ernest Rutherford and JJ Thompson and Christopher Hinton, without whom the UK may never have led the world in nuclear energy, is about as good as it gets. It is therefore with great pride that I will do my best to live up to the honour bestowed upon me.”

Dame Sue was appointed Chair of the Nuclear Innovation Research Advisory Board by the Government in January 2014. She also represents the UK on the European Commission EURATOM Science and Technology Committee (which she now Chairs) and is an international member of the US Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee.

Dame Sue was the first woman to be awarded the President’s Medal by the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2014. She is also a Fellow of The Royal Society, a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining; a Fellow of the Nuclear Institute; and an Honorary Fellow of the Association for Project Management.

She received an OBE in 2002 for services to the nuclear industry and a DBE in the 2010 New Year’s Honours for services to Science and Engineering.

Dame Sue was appointed Visiting Professor at Imperial College in 2006 and of London Southbank University in 2011 and has been a member of the Board of Governors at the University of Manchester since 2004. She has held an Honorary Professorship at the University of Central Lancashire since the beginning of 2007.

Sue’s background is in materials science/metallurgy. She gained a first-class honours from Imperial College in 1976 and a PhD in 1979 before joining British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) as a technical officer. She was promoted to Executive Group Director of Technology of BNFL in 1992 and served in this capacity until 2006. From 1997 she assumed functional accountability for the whole of the Group’s Technology portfolio including Westinghouse, during a period of tremendous change for the company and the nuclear sector generally.

She has been involved in energy matters since 2004 and chaired the steering group which oversaw the Research Councils’ International Review of Energy Research 2010-2011. Earlier this year she completed her term of office as the representative of the Royal Academy of Engineering on the UK Government’s Energy Research Partnership.

Dame Sue was the UK’s representative on the IAEA Standing Advisory Group on Nuclear Energy 2000-2006; a member of the UK Council for Science and Technology from 2004-2011; a member of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council from 1994-2001; a member of Council of EPSRC between 2005-2010 and Chaired the Fusion Advisory Board for the Research Councils between 2006-2012.

Dame Sue was elected to the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1996 and has Chaired the Awards Committee, the Engineering Policy Committee, the Energy Policy Sub-Committee, served as a Vice-President and Member of Council of the Royal Academy of Engineering 2002-2008 and remains Chair of the MacRobert Award Judging Panel.

The induction ceremony was followed by the James Clayton Prestige Lecture, which was given by Paralympian Dave Henson MBE and was entitled ‘Rebuilding Broken Bodies’. There followed a discussion with Dave Henson about his lecture, which was opened by Professor Anthony Bull and chaired by the President, Jon Hilton.

View Honorary Fellows of the Institution