The Royal Academy of Engineering looks set to appoint a female president for the first time later this year.

Its Council has nominated Professor Dame Ann Dowling — the head of the Department of Engineering at Cambridge University — as its sole candidate for September’s election, which will take place at the RAE’s annual general meeting.

Dame Ann, who would serve a term of five years, is a world authority on combustion and acoustics. She became a Cambridge research fellow in 1977 and has remained at the university ever since (as well as holding visiting research posts at MIT and Caltech).

n 1993, she became the engineering department’s first female professor. In 2002, she received a CBE for services to Mechanical Engineering, and she received a DBE for services to science five years later.

Dame Ann now leads research on efficient, low-emission combustion for aero and industrial gas turbines and low-noise vehicles, particularly aircraft and cars.