The first woman to become President of the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM) has been appointed.

Dr Anna Barnes, an IPEM Fellow, has become the first woman to hold the position, after confirmation of her appointment at the IPEM Annual General Meeting.

Dr Barnes is a Clinical Scientist School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences at King’s College London, and a Director of the King’s Technology Evaluation Centre at KCL and has been involved with IPEM throughout her career.

Her volunteer roles at IPEM have included two years as Vice President External and as Vice President Academic, where she has mentored and supervised students from primary school to post-graduate education in the hope of encouraging them to follow a career in STEM.

Dr Barnes said: “My aim is not to be the first and only female President this decade and I feel really privileged to take on this role at this exciting time for IPEM.

“I’m really looking forward to my presidency and to pushing forward on important matters like equity of opportunity, diversity of thinking and inclusion across academia, industry and public healthcare.

“I have stepped into this role because I felt the time had come that a woman needed to step into a leadership position so that almost half of our members can see that they can also do this job.”

As one of the first two IPEM trainees in Scotland in 1993, Dr Barnes specialised in biomedical engineering and equipment management before pursuing a career in medical imaging. She graduated with a PhD in 1999 from the University of Glasgow prior to undertaking two Fellowships at New York University and Columbia University, focusing on neuroimaging and statistical analysis. A research fellowship at the University of Cambridge Brain Mapping Unit, and time at University College London Hospital nuclear medicine department, were followed by her appointment as Chief Healthcare Scientist for the South-East for NHS England.

IPEM is one of the professional engineering institutions (PEIs) licensed by the Engineering Council.

For more information, please visit the IPEM website.