Congratulations to Dawn Childs FIMechE for being recognised in the New Year Honours List 2023

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers would like to congratulate Dawn Childs who has been appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year Honours List 2023 for her services to engineering.

Dame Dawn Childs DBE FREng FIMechE has been the President of Women’s Engineering Society since 2018 and endeavours to support women in engineering and encourage them to fulfil their potential. Dawn feels strongly that the percentage of women entering engineering will only increase if girls understand the opportunities offered by an engineering career.

As well as inspiring women in the industry, she strives to encourage children and young adults to pursue STEM subjects and was recognised in 2015 when she won the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Alastair Graham-Bryce Award for her significant contributions to campaigning for the promotion of engineering to children, students, young adults and women. When accepting this award, Dawn expressed the importance of young people, as well as their teachers and parents, understanding the ramifications of choosing certain subjects and the value of more young people keeping their options open.

The Institution would also like to extend their congratulations to Ollie Folayan, Co-Founder of the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers (AFBE)  who was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to equality, diversity and inclusion in engineering.

At the end of 2022, the Institution signed a cooperation agreement with the AFBE to promote diversity and to look for ways to encourage more black and ethnic minority students to consider engineering as a career. Find out more about the agreement here.