Ina Colombo

With 20 years’ experience working in the engineering industry and in research, Dr Ina Colombo has been the Deputy Director General at the International Institute of Refrigeration in Paris since 2013. Having grown up in Guadeloupe in the French Caribbean and graduated with an HND in thermal engineering and energy in France, Ina transferred to England to perfect her English and pursue her early career.

"I was born in France and moved to Guadeloupe (Oversea Caribbean French department) when I was 5 years- old until the age of 20. I used to visit my father in Paris during summer holidays when I was teenager. He was trained and worked as a milling machine operator.

I was the first person in my family to study a STEM subject at university, though not the first to attend university, my aunty Godmother studied until master level to be a documentarist. Since I attended, my younger brother studied a STEM subject to become a Technical Salesman, and my little cousin studied engineering and is now an electronic engineer working in Boston”

Ina undertook her qualifications in the UK at London South Bank University (LSBU) on a part-time basis while she worked as a consultant/engineer. After completing her work experience at the House of Commons as a trainee Energy Manager, Ina then worked for five years designing HVAC systems and assessing energy use in buildings for various organisations as a junior engineer. Reflecting on her move to the UK, Ina says: “I found I was welcomed into a land with a great cultural diversity, integration and multiple professional opportunities.”

After working as a sustainable consultant, Ina returned to full-time academia at the LSBU to complete a PhD in Sustainable Refrigeration Engineering and a post-doctorate research project. She explains: “In industry, the workload is much more intense and stressful than in academia. In academia, you have time to think, reflect and make mistakes.”

After 13 years in England, Ina returned to France where she accepted the position of Deputy Director General of the International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR), an intergovernmental organisation of 59 Member Countries which includes governments in both high-income and low- middle-income countries. At the IIR, Ina promotes refrigeration knowledge across all applications worldwide and manages national, regional (mostly Europeans) and international funded projects.

She is the secretary of the IIR working group on Careers in Refrigeration 'CaRe'. The CaRe working group, led by Dr Catarina Marques (LSBU Senior Research Fellow), aims to make refrigeration and air conditioning more visible to the general public and inspire the younger generation to join this exciting field. Another goal is to increase both the cultural diversity and the number of women working in refrigeration. Since its inception, CaRe has organised and hosted several student networking events for future engineers and researchers.

She has contributed to publish four academic articles on women in the RACHP industry and particularly the IIR/UNEP Women In Cooling: A Worldwide Survey Booklet which summarised the background, motivation, challenges, and opportunities faced by 810 women worldwide working in RACHP industry. She is on the board of the International Network of Women in Refrigeration to advance the engagement of women, promote career opportunities, and increase their overall participation in the sector, which includes refrigeration, air-conditioning, and heat pumps (RACHP).

She is an advocate for diversity in the engineering industry, particularly concerning ethnic representation. She is the Director of AFBE-UK and as its former Research and Engagement officer, she has published two articles on the impact of role models in the BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) community. She also has pioneered capacity-building events (Making Engineering Hot campaign and Transition).