Karen Holford

Education Holford was educated at Newent Comprehensive School

This came after her school art teacher encouraged her to pursue the course, even though her careers advisor had discouraged her from studying engineering, which was perceived as a predominately male area. She later returned to Rolls-Royce.

Career and research During her time at Rolls-Royce Holford contributed to the construction of the Adour and Pegasus engines with help from engineers across Europe and the United States and development work in advanced engineering. After completing the course Holford was employed at local company AB Electronic Products as a senior engineer. Holford and her team later focussed on the improvement of AE damage location techniques, energy harvesting and embedded sensors aimed at the development of autonomous structural health monitoring systems. She also served as the faculty advisor for Cardiff University's Formula Student team, an UpRising ambassador, and a Director of the Compound Semiconductor Centre. Outside of academia Holford entered the first rounds of the 2004 Formula Woman Championship behind the wheel of a Caterham 7. and in 2020, took up the role of chair of the Royal Academy of Engineering Research Committee. Holford is a leading advocate of engineering and is part of several committees and organisations that actively encourage young people to consider a career in the field. She is also chief executive and vice-chancellor at Cranfield University.

Awards and honours Holford's work has earned her several awards. In 2002 she was awarded a Royal Academy prize for 'Engineering Excellence' in TCS work. In 2006, she was a recipient of Welsh Woman of the Year in Science and Technology. She was awarded the WISE Excellence Award for “personal contribution to engineering and a long term commitment to supporting girls and young women in science and engineering” in 2007,

Holford is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (FIMechE), Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales (FLSW), Fellow of the Women's Engineering Society (FWES), and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) in 2015. She won the Suffrage Science award in 2019. She was appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2018 New Year Honours and a Dame of the same order (DBE) in the 2024 Birthday Honours.