WIM3 | A Level Playing Field?

Dr Fiona Robinson FIMMM

Principal Metallurgy, ENODA Ltd

Dr Fiona Robinson FIMMM is Chair of the Energy Materials Group (EMG), Vice Chair of WIM3, and the 2025 recipient of the T B Marsden Professional Medal. 

Fiona is Principal Metallurgist at ENODA Ltd., bringing over 30 years’ experience in electrical steels, metals and materials R&D, and materials processing technologies to their Materials team. She has industrial, research, academic and consulting experience of non-oriented and grain oriented electrical steels, process and product development, data analytics and problem solving. Fiona actively participates in activities related to widening participation in STEM and supporting women to enter and sustain careers in materials.

Fiona has a degree in Metallurgy and Materials Science from Imperial College, a PhD from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Liverpool, and a specialist Technology Management MBA from the Open University. Fiona is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA).

Joanna Whiteman

Head of Diversity and Inclusion, Royal Academy of Engineering

Joanna is the Head of Diversity and Inclusion at the Royal Academy of Engineering and leads on the Academy’s work to accelerate diversity and inclusion throughout engineering. She and her team work with engineering companies, academic institutions and professional bodies in particular, providing evidence-based programming and rigorous research to support them on their inclusion journeys and enable their good practices to reach the wider sector.

Joanna began her career as an employment lawyer, advising companies across the UK as they sought to comply with the Equality Act 2010. She then moved into the charitable sector and, as Head of Litigation and then Co-director at the Equal Rights Trust, she supported global partners to use the law to advance equality.

Joanna has advised, trained and guided hundreds of organisations as they embed inclusive practices in their own work and continue their work advocating on behalf of underrepresented communities. Joanna has also worked closely with organisations on developing equality policies and advocating for relevant legal reform at the national and international level.

Suchitra Sebastian

Professor, University of Cambridge

Suchitra Sebastian is Professor in Physics and EPSRC Established Career Fellow at the University of Cambridge. Her research seeks to discover exotic quantum phases of matter in complex materials. To this end, her group’s experiments involve tuning the co-operative behaviour of electrons within these materials by subjecting them to extreme conditions including low temperature, high applied pressure, and intense magnetic field. Under these conditions, interactions between a trillion trillion electrons, as many as the stars in the observable universe, create surprising and unpredictable collective quantum phases akin to new materials ‘universes’. Emergent quantum phenomena studied by Suchitra’s research group include high-temperature superconductivity and a new unconventional insulating state of matter they recently discovered. Most recent awards Suchitra has received include the New Horizons in Physics Prize (2022) awarded by the Breakthrough Foundation and the Schmidt Science Polymath award (2022). Suchitra is founder director of the Cavendish Arts Science programme, and co-founder of Bread Theatre and Film Company. She participates in scientific research for non-imperialistic, non-militaristic purposes.