Max Fordham, the environmental engineering practice, has appointed sustainability expert Tamsin Tweddell as a senior partner.

A sustainability expert, Ms Tweddell is focusing on the performance of buildings in use.

She joined the practice in 2000, having studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University. Much of her work at the practice has been concerned with ensuring the buildings Max Fordham completes perform as designed, functioning to the sustainability brief set by the client or architect, and are as comfortable to the occupants as possible. She has been instrumental in developing the practice’s Soft Landings approach to engineering.

Tamsin’s appointment as a senior partner comes at a time when there is growing awareness of the under-representation of women in the engineering industry. Female students make up just a fifth of those studying physics at A-level. The picture is even worse at university, where just a sixth of those studying engineering or technology subjects are female. In the UK, just 9% of engineering professionals are female, the lowest in Europe.

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of Max Fordham establishing his practice in Camden. The firm now has five offices in the UK and a team of more than 180 engineering professionals.