» Issue 1: Autumn 2004

A role model for women engineers

Colleen Richardson talked to Julia King as she prepared to take over as the new Principal of the Faculty of Engineering

A FELLOW of seven societies and institutions and the recipient of 14 awards and honours, Julia King is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and received a CBE for services to materials engineering in 1999. She gained a first in natural sciences, in metallurgy, at New Hall, Cambridge and completed her PhD on fracture mechanics. After 16 years as a researcher and lecturer – including seven at Nottingham University and a return to Cambridge – Julia joined Rolls-Royce Aerospace as Head of Materials.

‘When I went to Rolls-Royce (which had to be one of the UK’s most exciting companies), I not only had the chance to work in aerospace, energy and marine, but as an engineer in an operational role. ‘I enjoyed it most when I ran the fan system business. We were responsible for designing, manufacturing and delivering the front part of the engine. There’s nothing more exciting than seeing the design develop, the factory turn it into a product, our part of the product become part of the whole engine and then seeing it run. I don’t get that buzz from pure science. I’m a practical person – I like to see something emerging that makes a difference. ‘Another reason I moved to Rolls-Royce was because much of the research was of high quality and very clever. But it was a solution looking for a problem’, she said. ‘There’s a strong move now to get a better integration of human sciences in designing engineering products for people to use. Too often we don’t take human behaviour considerations into account until too late in the design process. ‘I certainly feel this is an area that we should tackle in the future. I also think it’s an aspect that might well attract more girls into engineering.’

Julia is a strong advocate of encouraging more youngsters, particularly women, to enter science and engineering, as Sir Colin Terry said when introducing her talk to this year’s CGCA AGM. As she says, women form 52% of the population yet there are too few in science and engineering. For example, only 2.8% of chartered engineers are women, although15% of people with engineering degrees are women. Only 11% of engineering companies’ managers and 1.5% of the Royal Academy of Engineering fellows are women. ‘But’, says Julia, ‘research shows women work better in teams and the best team is one of seven women. We listen better, interrupt less than men and find it easier to deal with people issues’. During her AGM talk, Alice in academia and industry: shrinking, growing and learning, Julia said that, as a child, her favourite book was Alice in Wonderland. ‘She was a great role model for little girls. One of my favourite quotes is: “I’ve a right to think”. If we brought children up with that in mind, it would be rather good. ‘During my academic career, I had a wonderful time with relatively little teaching and plenty of time for research. But, indeed, the time I spent teaching was hugely enjoyable. It’s a fantastic honour to be part of people’s development. I think that everyone should teach for some period of their life. In industry, it seems to make them such good members of research teams.

Since 2002, Julia has been Chief Executive at The Institute of Physics, a rather special charity and professional institution with 37,000 members. It spends about £4 million a year promoting science in schools and is a lobbying organisation for physical science. Julia admits to being ‘a terrible squirrel’ although organised, methodical and with a very good memory. ‘I’m a great writer of lists and like to tick them off as things get done’, she says. Explaining her energy and optimism, she says she’s been lucky enough to have been given good educational opportunities. ‘I’ve never really had to do anything I didn’t want to do. I believe that you make your own luck to a degree, but you have to be given a good kick start.’ I asked Julie what made her decide to take the job at Imperial. ‘Well, it’s a job I really couldn’t resist. Although I trained as a scientist, I’ve always worked as an engineer. Sometimes I find pure science a bit frustrating. As a child I liked taking things apart and finding out how they worked. So when the sewing machine broke, I had to mend it. I hugely enjoy seeing something I’ve done, in action. ‘Another area of real opportunity is developments that will lead to the strengthening of the UK medical equipment industry. Smaller and smaller electronic devices, in flexible materials and with improved compatibility with the body, offer many new opportunities to “repair” people.’ ‘So reason one was the engineering and medical opportunities. Two was the possibilities of interaction with the developing business school. Third was Richard Sykes’s approach. I think it’s very refreshing and dynamic to see what he seems to be doing to Imperial. He is pragmatic and brings a strong sense of direction, ambition and urgency to the place. That’s exciting.’