King continued at Cambridge as a Rolls-Royce research fellow for 2 years before taking a post as a lecturer at the
University of Nottingham from 1980 to 1987. where she served until September 2016, when she was succeeded by
Alec Cameron. King was appointed as chair of STEM Learning Ltd in September 2016. King has held a number of senior public appointments and works closely with Government on education and technology issues. She is a member of the
Committee on Climate Change, the
Airports Commission, is the UK's Low Carbon Business Ambassador and was previously a non-executive Director of the
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. She was an inaugural member of the Governing Board of the
European Institute of Innovation and Technology and is a former member of the
World Economic Forum Automotive Council. She was a board member of the Engineering and Technology Board (now
EngineeringUK) from 2004 to 2008 and led a
Royal Academy of Engineering Working Party on "Educating Engineers for the 21st Century" which published its final report in June 2007. King has advised the Ministry of Defence as Chair of the Defence Science Advisory Council and the Cabinet Office as a member of the National Security Forum. She was also a non-executive member of the Technology Strategy Board for five years. She was a non-executive Director of
Angel Trains and is a non-executive director of the
Green Investment Bank. She was a member of the
Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership, the
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, and the Board of
Universities UK, chairing its Innovation and Growth Policy Network. King was appointed by
Gordon Brown, the then
Chancellor of the Exchequer, in March 2007 to lead the
King Review to examine the vehicle and fuel technologies that, over the next 25 years, could help to reduce carbon emissions from road transport. The interim analytical report was published in October 2007, and the final recommendations in March 2008. She has published over 160 papers on fatigue and fracture in structural materials and developments in aerospace and marine propulsion technology, and has been awarded the Grunfeld, John Collier, Lunar Society,
Constance Tipper, Bengough and Kelvin medals as well as the Erna Hamburger Prize and the 2012 President's Prize of the Engineering Professors' Council. She is a
Liveryman of the
Goldsmiths Company, an Honorary Graduate of
Queen Mary, University of London, the
University of Manchester, the
University of Exeter and an Honorary Fellow of
Murray Edwards College, Cambridge,
Cardiff University and of the Institutions of Engineering and Technology, the Society for the Environment and the British Science Association. In 2006 she presented the
Higginson Lecture. On 5 May 2010, she discussed the challenges and opportunities that surround low-carbon transport when she delivered the
Institution of Chemical Engineers 6th
John Collier memorial lecture. She is the UK government's low carbon business ambassador. She was promoted to
Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the
2012 Birthday Honours for services to higher education and technology. In 2023 she was a guest on the
BBC Radio 4 programme
The Life Scientific. ==Personal life==