The Royal Academy of Engineering elected its two youngest ever Fellows - both women - at its AGM on 8 July 2002. Its youngest Fellow is optical communications expert Polina Bayvel, aged 36, Professor and Royal Society Research Fellow in the Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering at University College London. Next youngest is Amanda Chessell, 37, a corporate senior technical staff member at IBM's Hursley Research Labs, who has made advances in e-business software.
The youngest person previously admitted to the Academy was Dr Richard Laming of Kymata, 38 on election. The Academy has also elected 47 other new Fellows, including some of the giants of British industry and academia. In addition it elected a new Honorary Fellow - Donald Heughan, creator of the MacRobert Award for innovation in engineering - as well as four new foreign members.