Katherine Bellingham (born 1963)Royal Society of Chemistry
– see Curriculum Vitae image below article is an English engineer and television presenter known for her role presenting the

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

science show ''

Tomorrow's World ''Tomorrow's World'' is a former British television series about contemporary developments in science and technology. First transmitted on 7 July 1965 on BBC1, it ran for 38 years until it was cancelled at the beginning of 2003. The ''Tomorro ...

'' from 1990–1994. Following a period pursuing other interests and raising children, she resumed her

broadcasting Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting beg ...

career in 2010.

Early life

Bellingham was born in

Buckrose Buckrose was a wapentake of the historic East Riding of Yorkshire, England consisting of the north-west part of the county; its territory is now partly in the modern East Riding and partly in North Yorkshire. Established in medieval times, it ...

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to t ...

, and educated at the independent Mount School in York, followed by the

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

, where she studied Physics. She graduated in 1984. She earned her MSc in Electronic Communications Systems Engineering from

University of Hertfordshire The University of Hertfordshire (UH) is a public university in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. The university is based largely in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Its antecedent institution, Hatfield Technical College, was founded in 1948 and was ident ...

Career

Broadcasting

Bellingham was a BBC radio engineer working in the BBC Broadcasting House in 1988 when she was selected to co-host the annual Faraday Lecture sponsored by the

Institution of Electrical Engineers The Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) was a British professional organisation of electronics, electrical, manufacturing, and Information Technology professionals, especially electrical engineers. It began in 1871 as the Society of T ...

– a tour of live shows for school pupils around the UK. A

BBC Schools BBC Schools, also known as BBC for Schools and Colleges, is the educational programming strand set up by the BBC in 1957, broadcasting a range of educational programmes for children aged 5–16. From launch until June 1983, programming was based o ...

producer saw her perform and she was offered a presenting role on a new Design and Technology programme called ''Techno''. She returned to her engineering training, but then applied for ''

'' and joined the team of presenters working on the show in 1990 for four years. Programmes she has presented include: *

Radio Five Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcast ...

– ''

The Acid Test ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' from 1994–7 and ''Splitting the Difference'' in 1996 *

BBC School Radio BBC School Radio is a division of the BBC providing audio learning resources for primary schools in the United Kingdom. History The first broadcast to schools was organized by the privately owned British Broadcasting Company and given by the ...

* Radio 4 – ''Testing Times'' (four-part series in November 1999) * BBC2 – ''Working in Engineering'' in 1999 * The

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...

* Children's ITV – ''

The Big Bang The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models of the Big Bang explain the evolution of the observable universe from the ...

'' from 1996–2004 After around five years of regular television work, hosting numerous live events and presenting corporate video programmes, Bellingham decided to focus first on her young family and then to follow her core professional interest by returning to university to secure an MSc in Electronics.

Promotion of engineering (especially for women)

She trained and then worked as a maths teacher until July 2007, but has returned to media work, and to promoting STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) to general public audiences, particularly school pupils. She is the

DCSF Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) was a department of the UK government, between 2007 and 2010, responsible for issues affecting people in England up to the age of 19, including child protection and education. DCSF was replac ...

's STEM Careers Champion (NSCC), Education Ambassador for the

Bloodhound The bloodhound is a large scent hound, originally bred for hunting deer, wild boar and, since the Middle Ages, for tracking people. Believed to be descended from hounds once kept at the Abbey of Saint-Hubert, Belgium, in French it is called, ...

Engineering Adventure. Bellingham returned to TV screens in March 2010 as a regular co-presenter for '' Museum of Life'' a documentary series for BBC2 about the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...

. She was one of the celebrity judges at the National Science + Engineering Competition at

The Big Bang Fair The Big Bang UK Young Scientists and Engineers Fair, founded 2009, is the United Kingdom’s largest celebration of STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) for young people, and is one of the largest youth events in the UK. The fair t ...

in March 2012, which rewards students who have achieved excellence in a science, technology, engineering or maths project and awarded prizes for the Talent 2030 National Engineering Competition for Girls in 2015. She was also involved with the British Engineering Excellence Awards (BEEAs) in October 2010, an event, organised by British-based Eureka and New Electronics, which aims to promote the engineering achievements of British companies. During the awards Kate wore the "e-dress" (designed by Abigail Williams from Amman Valley School and created by Francesca Rosella and Ryan Genz of CuteCircuit), discussed the role of Design Technology (DT) in schools and its significance to British Engineering in the future.

Awards

In 1997, she received an honorary doctorate in Technology from

Staffordshire University , mottoeng = Dare to know , type = Public , endowment = £70 million (2015) , administrative_staff = 1,375 , chancellor = Francis Fitzherbert, 15th Baron Stafford , vice_chancellor = Professor Martin Jones , ...

. In 2003, she received an MSc in Electronics from the

. She is President of Young Engineers, the national network of engineering clubs in schools and colleges. She is also a Patron of WISE, a charitable organisation that encourages young women to pursue careers in Science, Engineering and Construction. In 2011 she was awarded a Women of Outstanding Achievement Award, partly in recognition for her work as National STEM Co-Ordinator for Sheffield Hallam University's Centre for Science Education.

Personal life

Bellingham is married to BBC maintenance engineer, Martin Young. They have two children and settled in Hertfordshire.

References

External links

Kate Bellingham's Official Website

*
Science: So what?

Young Engineers

from the Royal Academy of Engineering in June 2004.

News items

Bloodhound SSC in November 2009

Audio clips

''Today'' programme in September 2008

''Shifting Load'' at Radio 4 in 2004

Video clips

''Tomorrow's World'' 15 April 1994
from the BBC Archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Bellingham, Kate 1963 births Living people English television presenters British women television presenters BBC Radio 5 Live presenters Mathematics popularizers People associated with the Open University British women engineers Engineers from Yorkshire Mathematics educators Schoolteachers from Yorkshire Alumni of the University of Hertfordshire People from York People educated at The Mount School, York 21st-century women engineers British radio presenters British women radio presenters