Dr Angela Strank, head of Downstream technology and bp chief scientist, awarded damehood

Many congratulations to Dr Angela Strank, head of Downstream technology and BP chief scientist who has been honoured in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for services to the oil and gas industry and for encouraging women into STEM careers. The Queen’s Birthday Honours lists 2017 recognise the achievements of a wide range of extraordinary people from across the UK

Her career with BP spans some 36 years and has included numerous, diverse international leadership roles. Throughout, while being highly successful in her ‘day job’, she has always found the time to promote STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and STEM careers, particularly to girls and young women. She has used her own passion for STEM and communicated it to large numbers through media articles and interviews, lectures in schools and universities and teaching evening classes and at the Open University.

Angela is also a leading member of BP Women’s International Network where she has chaired Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) and STEM events for hundreds of scientists and engineers. She has also been a judge and speaker for many high profile, national competitions such as the UK Government’s SET challenge and the Ultimate STEM challenge for schools.  This sustained and unwavering commitment to communicating the benefits of STEM careers, not only for economic growth but also to drive research and development to improve lives globally, is a major achievement in itself.

Externally, Angela holds appointments as a non-executive director, Seven Trent Water and a board governor, University of Manchester.