Eminent engineers honoured by the Queen

Professor Dame Ann Dowling OM DBE Hon FIMechE FREng FRS was admitted to the Order of Merit and a number of Institution Fellows were named in the New Year’s Honours List.

There have been three new admissions to the Order of Merit (OM), which is awarded to those who have rendered exceptionally meritorious services towards the advancement of the arts, learning, literature and science. The award is the personal gift of the Queen, and is limited to 24 living recipients.

The Queen admitted Professor The Lord Darzi, for medicine, Professor Dame Ann Dowling for mechanical engineering and Sir James Dyson for his work in industrial design.

Ann Dowling, who is President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and who was inducted as an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 2011, said: "I was surprised, delighted and very, very honoured by this award.

"Engineering involves teamwork, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those that I have worked with over the years at the University of Cambridge, in industry, and more recently at the Royal Academy of Engineering.  As President of the Academy I take particular delight in the fact that all three new OMs are Fellows or Honorary Fellows of the Academy.  What a tremendous recognition of the importance of engineering.”

The work of a number of leading UK engineers, including a past-President of the Institution, was highlighted in the New Year’s Honours list.

John Baxter CBE FREng FRSE FIMechE FIET received the CBE for services to engineering, education and the energy sector. John Baxter was President of the Institution in 2007-2008 and was formerly Group Head of Engineering, BP. He was Master of the Worshipful Company of Engineers in 2014-2015.

Professor Elizabeth Tanner OBE FREng FRSE FIMechE FIMMM FIPEM, Professor of Biomedical Materials at the University of Glasgow, was awarded an OBE for services to biomedical engineering. 

Professor Tanner completed her undergraduate degree in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford in 1979 and her DPhil in 1985. Since then she has held a number of senior academic and teaching posts at Queen Mary University of London and, since 2007, at the University of Glasgow. She has edited three books and published over 160 papers and chapters. As Head of Biomedical Engineering Teaching 2010-15, she developed new BEng and MEng degrees for the University of Glasgow – the first undergraduate biomedical engineering degrees in Scotland. 

Liz Tanner said: “It was a delightful surprise and an honour. I am so pleased because it shows that the work I have been doing in biomedical engineering for the past 30 years has been worthwhile, benefitting people and patients and biomedical engineering, a growing field of engineering.”