Kate Bellingham

TV Presenter – Engineer – Champion for girls in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

Oxford University physics graduate Kate Bellingham started out as a trainee audio engineer for the BBC. Having taken part in a series of engineering lectures for schools and the BBC Schools series ‘Techno’, Kate was offered a prize job in broadcasting – fronting the weekly live show ‘Tomorrow’s World’, which she did from 1990 to 1994.

Building on her popularity with younger viewers, she went on to host the children’s ITV science programme ‘Big Bang’ and then Radio 5 Live’s ‘The Acid Test’. In 2010 Kate returned to the BBC as a reporter for the ‘Museum of Life’ – a 6-part documentary series on the amazing behind the scenes work at the Natural History Museum - and most recently has been a contributor on the Discovery Channel series ‘Disasters Engineered’.

While working for the BBC, Kate became involved with the WISE Campaign and was also appointed President of Young Engineers, working with their network of clubs in schools and colleges. In 2010 she took on the role of National STEM Careers Coordinator for the Department of Children, Schools and Families, with a focus on helping young people make informed STEM subject and career choices. As a mature student, Kate gained a Masters in electronics, qualified as a maths teacher and has recently embarked on a PhD at the Centre for Engineering Education at UCL.

A personal passion for championing opportunities in STEM, particularly for women, has led Kate to work with numerous organisations and companies including Young Engineers, the Women’s Engineering Society, the WISE Campaign, Engineering UK, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), the Institute of Physics and the Primary Science Teaching Trust.

In 2004 Kate was awarded the ‘Public Promotion of Engineering’ Medal by the Royal Academy of Engineering and in 2011 won the UKRC ‘Women of Outstanding Achievement Award for Communication of Science, Engineering and Technology to Society’. Between 1997 and 2016, she has been awarded Honorary Doctorates in Science, Engineering and Technology by seven universities: Staffordshire, UWE, Kent, De Montfort, Bradford, Hull and, most recently, Hertfordshire where student residences Bellingham Court have also been named in her honour.