Marie-Noëlle Barton MBE, Director of WISE As Director of the WISE (Women Into Science and Engineering) Campaign  will be Guest of Honour at Portsmouth High School’s Awards Evening on Friday 21 November.  
The annual ceremony held at Portsmouth Guildhall is an opportunity for school to celebrate the achievements of current pupils and recent leavers. Amongst those to receive prizes were girls who studied for their A Levels in this summer’s public examinations, many of whom have now almost completed their first term at university.

Marie-Noelle will present the prizes to pupils and then gave a keynote speech as part of the evening’s programme which also included a video review of the year. 

Marie-Noëlle is regularly interviewed on national and local radio and TV as well as by journalists. She has given evidence to the Science and Technology Select Committees of the House of Commons and the House of Lords on topics ranging from the teaching of science to the reasons for the low percentage of women working in science and engineering. She is co-author of a handbook entitled Engineering Equals aimed at parents and educationalists urging them to encourage girls and women into science and engineering. Marie-Noëlle has sat on a number of committees, most recently the Stewart Committee, which looked as the safety of mobile phones. She was a judge for the 2005 and 2006 Great Britons Award. In 2007, she was made a Champion of the Make your Mark Campaign.

As Director of the WISE (Women Into Science and Engineering) Campaign for almost twenty years, Marie-Noëlle worked closely with educationalists, key professional bodies, multi-national organisations and smaller employers, government departments, politicians and the media to promote the cause of women in these male-dominated sectors. As a Professional Speaker, she mainly promotes science, engineering and technology as well as women’s issues.

In 1999, she was awarded an MBE for her work in promoting science and engineering to women.  In the same year she was also the winner of the London Woman of the Year Award for her achievements in promoting women’s issues. She has received two Honorary Doctorates of Technology from the University of Staffordshire and from Cardiff University.