Campus Talks: The career story of Raffaella Ocone, the first female professor of chemical engineering in Scotland
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STEM study and research are responsible for much of humanity’s most transformative knowledge and technology. Discoveries and products that emerge from STEM will continue to define how we live now and in the future.
So, it should concern everyone that STEM fields are still overwhelmingly male dominated. And it’s not just women who are under-represented, this also applies to minority ethnic groups. Women make up only 16.9 per cent of the 6.4 million people working in engineering and technology in the UK – compared with 56 per cent in other occupations. While minority ethnic groups make up just 14 per cent of the workforce, according to EngineeringUK’s 2025 workforce report.
On this week’s podcast, in homage to International Women’s Day, we speak to an academic who has built a successful career as a woman in the male-dominated field of chemical engineering, to find out how being an outlier shaped her approach to her career and what she thinks needs to change to diversify her discipline.
Raffaella Ocone became the first female professor of chemical engineering in Scotland – second in the UK – when she was appointed to the post at Heriot-Watt University in 1999. She is currently serving as president of the Institute of Chemical Engineering, marking the organisation’s first female president and CEO partnership.
She is also a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Institution of Chemical Engineers, and the Royal Society of Chemistry. In 2007 she was appointed Cavaliere of the Italian Republic and in 2019 in the Queen’s New Year Honours she was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to engineering.
But it all started for Raffaella in a small village, Morcone, in the hills of Campania in southern Italy where, as she explains, few people backed her chances of becoming a professional engineer. Listen on to hear how she proved them wrong.
For more insight and advice on getting more women and other under-represented groups into STEM, head to our spotlight guide: Opening doors to greater diversity in STEM.
