Ann Dowling

Dame Ann Dowling OM DBE FRS FREng
Dowling in 2011
Born	Ann Patricia Dowling (1952-07-15) 15 July 1952 (age 64)
Fields	Mechanical engineering Aeroacoustics
Institutions	University of Cambridge Cambridge–MIT Institute Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Caltech Massachusetts Institute of Technology BP
Alma mater	Girton College, Cambridge
Thesis	Picoustic Sources in Motion (1978)
Known for	Silent Aircraft Initiative
Notable awards	Order of Merit Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire President of the Royal Academy of Engineering Fellow of the Royal Society
Spouse	Thomas Paul Hynes
Website www.eng.cam.ac.uk/~apd1
Dame Ann Dowling's voice from the BBC programme The Life Scientific, 28 August 2012. Problems playing this file? See media help.

Dame Ann Patricia Dowling OM DBE FRS FREng (born 15 July 1952) is a British mechanical engineer who researches combustion, acoustics and vibration, focusing on efficient, low-emission combustion and reduced road vehicle and aircraft noise. From 2009 to 2014 she was Head of the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge, where she was the first female professor in 1993. She is also the President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and the Academy's first female president.

Dowling was educated at Ursuline Convent School, Westgate, Kent and the University of Cambridge (as a member of Girton College), where after studying mathematics at undergraduate level, and following a summer job at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, she was awarded a PhD in 1978. Dowling's PhD was in aeroacoustics, specifically on the Concorde noise problem.

Dowling's research career has been at University of Cambridge starting as a research fellow in 1977 but she has held visiting posts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Jerome C Hunsaker Visiting Professor, 1999) and at the California Institute of Technology (Moore Distinguished Scholar 2001). Dowling is one of four main panel chairs for the Research Excellence Framework.