Fiona Rayment awarded Damehood in New Year Honours

The outgoing President of the Nuclear Institute, Professor Fiona Rayment OBE PhD FREng FRSE FNucI, has been awarded a DBE in the King’s New Year Honours List 2026 for her services to nuclear engineering.

The honour recognises Dame Fiona’s contribution to the nuclear industry in a career spanning over three decades in nuclear engineering roles, and her commitment to improving diversity, inclusion and professionalism across the sector.

Commenting on the honour, Dame Fiona said: “It is a huge privilege for me to receive this honour. My family and I are immensely proud that my work has been recognised in this way.

“My career as an engineer in the nuclear industry has enabled me to work on so many interesting projects and meet countless wonderful people, both in the UK and internationally. Nuclear provides clean and reliable energy and as an engineer working on such worthwhile projects I continue to engage on both exciting and rewarding opportunities.

“I’m especially honoured that those opportunities include the chance to play a leading role in driving inclusion throughout our sector. I've seen first-hand how that enables more agile decision making, creates better outcomes and embraces more rigorous challenge.”

Dame Fiona has most recently served as Chief Science and Technology Officer and as Special Advisor to the CEO at the UK National Nuclear Laboratory.

Her current roles across the sector include being a Government advisor, vice chair of the OECD NEA Steering Committee, an independent non-executive director of Nuclear Restoration Services, a trustee and a visiting Professor at the Dalton Nuclear Institute, University of Manchester.

A life-long advocate for widening participation in science and engineering and enabling diversity and inclusion, Dame Fiona is the former Chair of the OECD NEA High Level Group on Gender Balance, and former Patron of Women in Nuclear UK.

Dame Fiona’s roles and achievements also include:

·      Chartered Chemist and Engineer with a PhD in chemistry.

·      Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the UK Nuclear Institute and the American Nuclear Society.

·      2025 recipient of the Royal Academy of Engineering Sir Frank Whittle Medal, in recognition of her engineering leadership and technical expertise in the nuclear sector.

·      MBA from Manchester Business School.

·      Former Member of Euratom’s Science and Technology Committee and the Idaho National Laboratory's Nuclear Science and Technology Advisory Committee.

·      Vice chair of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency’s Steering Committee Bureau.

·      Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Energy Division at CEA - the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission.

·      Non-Executive Member of the Board of the UK Space Agency.

·      Non-Executive Director of Nuclear Restoration Services.

·      Former (first) chair of the UK’s Nuclear Skills Strategy Group in 2016.

Professor Adrian Bull MBE FNucI, the incoming President of the Nuclear Institute who takes over the position from Dame Fiona on 1 January 2026, said: “All of us at the Nuclear Institute are exceptionally proud of Fiona and her achievements. Her remarkable career and credentials speak for themselves, with decades of contributions to the nuclear sector, both in practice as an engineer and in her advisory and leadership positions.

“She has delivered all of this with strength and humility, sharing her expertise, advocating for diversity and professionalism within the sector, and leading with vision and determination. It is an honour richly deserved.”

Dame Fiona was awarded an OBE in 2017 and the French Légion d’Honneur in 2020.