Dr Katrina Thompson has been appointed to the position of Programme Director at leading high-performance maritime design and applied technologies company Artemis Technologies.

A chartered engineer and graduate of Queen’s University with a PhD and BEng in Aeronautical Engineering and an MSc in Finite Element Analysis, Katrina has vast experience within the engineering and research sectors and is former Head of Research at Artemis Technologies.

Katrina will lead and oversee the successful completion of the Belfast Maritime Consortium’s Strength in Places programme. The Belfast Maritime Consortium was awarded a £33 million grant from the UK Research and Innovation’s Strength in Places Fund to develop zero emissions ferries, with the Belfast-Bangor pilot scheme’s vessel, aptly named Zero.

The 14-member syndicate, led by Artemis Technologies, has brought together a range of industry, academia and public bodies including Ards and North Down Borough Council, Belfast City Council, Belfast Harbour, Belfast Met, Catalyst, Condor Ferries, Creative Composites, Invest Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Advanced Composites Engineering (NIACE), Power NI, Queen’s University Belfast, Spirit AeroSystems, and Ulster University.