Dawn Bonfield is a materials engineer and founder and director of Towards Vision, 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 The Women's Engineering Society is a United Kingdom professional learned society and networking body for women engineers, scientists and technologists. It was the first professional body set up for women working in all areas of engineering, pred ...

(WES), and in 2018 was an ambassador for the Year of Engineering, promoting engineering careers through a roadshow aimed at meeting parents.

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 British Aerospace plc (BAe) was a British aircraft manufacturer, aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer that was formed in 1977. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire. ...

(Bristol),

MBDA MBDA is a European multinational corporation specialized in the design, development and manufacturing of Missile, missiles and related systems.Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) is a British engineering institution with activities including promotion of the development of materials science. It has been a registered charity governed by a royal charter and a member ...

(London). In 2017, Bonfield was appointed a Visiting Professor of Inclusive Engineers at Aston University, 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, 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. She then became CEO in 2015. 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''. She established and still runs the "Magnificent Women" schools outreach project and website, and the Sparxx project to support STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) students. She is a STEM ambassador who regularly promotes engineering and materials in schools.

Awards

In 2015 Bonfield won a WISE Award and an Association Congress Award for the INWED campaign, and in 2016 she won the SEMTA Skills Diversity Award. In 2016 she was a Finalist in the

Airbus Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate Airbus Defence and Space, defence and space and Airbus Helicopters, he ...

GEDC Diversity Award, and in 2017 she won the Women's Business Council STEM 'Starting Out' award. She was made MBE in the 2016 Queen's Birthday Honours list for 'Services to the promotion of diversity in engineering'.

Membership of groups

Bonfield has been a member of the following groups: *

T Level T Levels are technical-based qualifications in England, developed in collaboration with employers and businesses, with content that meets the needs of industry and prepares students for work, further training, or study. T Levels are two-year cou ...

panel member: Design, Development and Control * Member of the

Department of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

Technical Education Inclusivity Working Group * Member of the

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senio ...

Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Group on Measurement * Member of Bath University Court * Patron at Alton Convent School, Hampshire * External

Athena Swan Athena SWAN (Scientific Women's Academic Network) is an equality charter mark framework and accreditation scheme established and managed by the UK Equality Challenge Unit (now part of Advance HE) in 2005 that recognises and celebrates good pra ...

Advisory Group Member, City University * Member of the

Visiting Professors' Management Group * Member of the Women’s Business Council STEM Starting Out Subgroup * Member of Women in Materials Committee of Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonfield, Dawn Women materials scientists and engineers Living people Alumni of the University of Bath British materials scientists Women chief executives Members of the Order of the British Empire Year of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Female fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Fellows of the Women's Engineering Society Presidents of the Women's Engineering Society Fellows of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining 21st-century British engineers 21st-century British women engineers