Visiting Professor Dawn Bonfield, MBE

Dawn Bonfield MBE has been Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor of Inclusive Engineering at Aston University since 2017, and is the Founder & Director of Towards Vision, a not-for-profit which works towards a vision of diversity and inclusion in engineering. She is Past President and former Chief Executive of the Women's Engineering Society (WES). Dawn is Deputy Chair of the Women in Engineering Committee of the World Federation of Engineering Organisations working on the application of engineering and technology to address gender inequality globally. Dawn has recently been a member of the Engineering Design T level panel, and serves on a number of educational committees promoting engineering. She manages a social enterprise called ‘Magnificent Women’ which celebrates the history of women in engineering, and she was the founder of International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) which takes place on 23 June annually.
A materials engineer by profession - having studied Materials Science at Bath University - Dawn has worked at AERE Harwell, Citroen Research Centre (Paris), British Aerospace (Bristol), MBDA (Stevenage), and the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (London).
Dawn received an MBE in 2016 for 'Services to the promotion of diversity in engineering', and in 2015 Dawn won a WISE Award and an Association Congress Award for the INWED campaign, and in 2016 she won the SEMTA award for Diversity in Engineering. In 2016 she was a finalist in the GEDC Airbus Global Diversity Award, and in 2017 she won the Women's Business Council STEM 'Starting Out' award. In 2019 she was named as number 2 in the Inclusive Boards Financial Times Top 100 Women in Engineering List.