3. Julia King, Aston University

Aston University's vice-chancellor Julia King is one of the country's leading engineers.

Last year she was appointed by Gordon Brown to lead a high-profile review to examine vehicle and fuel technologies that, over the next 25 years, could help to reduce carbon emissions from road transport.

The final recommendations of the King Review were published in March 2008 and was also the subject of her inaugural lecture at Aston in April 2008.

Ms King started her career as an academic researcher and university lecturer at the universities of Cambridge and Nottingham. After 16 years in those positions she moved into industry, joining Rolls-Royce in 1994.

She held a number of senior executive appointments within the company, including director of advanced engineering for the Industrial Power Group, managing director of the Fan Systems Business, and engineering director for the Marine Business.

In 2002 she became chief executive of the Institute of Physics and in 2004 returned to academia as principal of the Engineering Faculty at Imperial College, London.

In December 2006 she became vice-chancellor of Aston University.

Throughout her career, Ms King has held a number of senior public appointments and continues to support universities and voluntary bodies in various roles. She is a director of the Engineering and Technology Board, a non-executive director of the Technology Strategy Board and the DIUS Strategic Board, and a member of the Ministerial Group on Manufacturing.

She recently stepped down after four years as chair of the Ministry of Defence's Defence Science Advisory Council and has led a Royal Academy of Engineering Working Party looking into the education of engineers in the modern world.

Ms King plays an active role in encouraging women and young people to go into the sciences and engineering.

She has published more than 160 papers on fatigue and fracture in structural materials and developments in aerospace and marine propulsion technology.

Her research was recognised when she was awarded the Grunfeld, Bengough and Kelvin medals. In 1997 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and in 1999 was made a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours for Services to Materials Engineering.

She is a Liveryman of the Goldsmiths' Company, and an Honorary Fellow of both New Hall, Cambridge, and of Cardiff University.