You could say it was written in the stars that Dame Sue Ion would be one of this country’s top scientists and a world leader in her field.

As a little lass, her mum would take her to Tullie House Museum in Carlisle and to the library next door to the Cathedral.

She saw an astronomy display when she was eight or nine and was so smitten that she immediately went next door to get some books on the subject. Young Sue was a doer as well as a reader.

She says: “Dad would let me and my younger sister help him with his DIY and I built a go-kart to race in the street with other kids. My parents bought me a chemistry set and I had a little meths bunsen burner on the kitchen table.”

Her dad was a planning officer for the railway. Her grandad had been a train driver. The railway work took the family from Raffles to Preston and Sue excelled in science at school.

She won an award for her work. She could choose a book on any subject. She chose something on nuclear power.

She explains: “I liked science more than English or history because it was logical. If you put things in the order they were supposed to be, you got the right answer.

“It was interesting because it was about making things and developing things. It was cool. In physics we built radios, in chemistry we developed films.”

After studying at Imperial College London, she landed a job as technical support officer for British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. She worked her way up and was chief technology director from 1992 until 2006, where she controlled a £100 million research and development budget.


Sue Ion Sue points out that she is a science engineer, a particular type of scientist that the country needs more of.

She wants to inspire and encourage young girls to follow her lead.

“People know what a scientist does, but have no idea what an engineer does.

“They think it is a guy who invented a washing machine or a motor mechanic, but countries like Germany have a completely different approach.

“There, it is about creating things and you have successful companies such as Siemens, Mercedes and Bosch. We have successful ones such as Rolls-Royce, GKN and BAE Systems, but you just don’t hear about them as much.”

The creation of popular science programmes such as those hosted by Brian Cox have encouraged an increased interest in the subject among youngsters.

The 61-year-old said: “TV presents it a lot better than it used to. Brian Cox has been absolutely fantastic in making it more accessible.

“Science is doing better in terms of mix of gender, but not maybe as well as it should be.”

She says that a major barrier facing girls who want to become engineers is the fact that 50 per cent of state secondary schools do not have girls taking physics A-level.

She has said: “When I was at school, it was quite different. You were given every encouragement possible to do science subjects if you were interested in them.”

Dame Sue wants to see changes to the school curriculum and the way science is taught in class to boost numbers. She believes it should be taught more generally and in relation to everyday life, such as farming or how floods happen and their effects.

“Kids at primary school are generally really interested in science stuff and those that do get engaged are usually turned on to it for life. But between the ages of 11 and 14, we manage to turn an entire generation off science.”

To list her achievements and high-ranking positions would fill an article in itself.

She is chairman of the government’s Nuclear Innovation and Research Advisory Board and sits on the US Nuclear Advisory Energy Advisory Committee. She has chaired the EU Euratom Science and Technology Committee since 2010, and represents the UK on a number of international committees as an expert on nuclear fuel manufacture and technology.

She was the first woman to be awarded the Royal Academy of Engineering’s most prestigious accolade – the President’s Medal.

She has been a member of the board of governors at the University of Manchester since 2004, and was appointed visiting professor of Imperial College in 2006. She was a member of the UK Council for Science and Technology and is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

She has worked around the world and continues to collaborate with foreign scientists.

She has no worries that will continue despite the EU referendum result.

“Nothing will change for a while yet and Europe as a bloc has never turned away interaction with other scientists.

“Science has always operated across boundaries and the UK’s science base has always punched above its weight. I think science will be one of the things that will improve trading arrangements with the EU.”

Dame Sue believes Cumbria would be the best place to establish a new underground nuclear waste site. She reasons that it is better to reduce transportation miles and points out we have the excellent engineering for a robust and safe solution.

When she’s not lecturing, chairing or giving talks on nuclear engineering, or advising governments, she spends her spare time walking in Cumbria with husband John.

The couple live in Preston and Ambleside, splitting their time between the two homes.


Sue Ion at school Her hikes are another throwback to her youth: “My mum and dad were fell walkers. I can remember from being quite small walking up fells in the northern Lakes.”

She was recently named in the UK’s top 50 women in engineering list, compiled by the Women’s Engineering Society and the Daily Telegraph, and released to mark National Women in Engineering Day. She is proud to be part of a list that, she says, proves the “massive breadth and depth” of engineering.

“If you look at the women in that top 50, they are an incredibly diverse bunch of people in quite a big spread of fields. There are some incredible women doing some brilliant things

“I just want to get across that it is possible to have a really exciting career and say to young girls, for goodness sake, don’t drop science.”

Her career has been stellar, now she wants other girls to reach for the stars.