Professor Dame Ann Dowling
Head of the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge
Professor Dame Ann Dowling is Head of the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge where she is Professor of Mechanical Engineering as well as Chairman of the University Gas Turbine Partnership with Rolls-Royce.
Ann Dowling's research is primarily in the fields of combustion, acoustics and vibration, in particular, in low-emission combustion and quiet vehicles. She was the UK lead of the Silent Aircraft Initiative, a collaboration between researchers at Cambridge and MIT who have released the conceptual design of an ultra-low noise and fuel efficient aircraft.
Ann Dowling is a Fellow of the Royal Society (Council Member), Royal Academy of Engineering (Vice-President 1999-2002) and a Foreign Associate Member of the US National Academy of Engineering and of the French Academy of Sciences.
She received her CBE in 2002 for services to Mechanical Engineering along with a DBE for services to Science in 2007 and was awarded an Honorary ScD from Trinity College Dublin in 2008. She is a also a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.
Her current research interests include
- Efficient, low emission combustion for aero and industrial gas turbines
- Modelling and control of combustion oscillations
- Energy Efficient Cities Initiative - an integrated approach to energy efficient buildings, transport, and energy supply technologies in the urban environment
- Energy efficient aircraft and engines
- Low noise vehicles, particularly aircraft and cars
- Energy efficient cities and transport