TV presenter and tech campaigner Maggie Philbin has been appointed an OBE in the New Year Honours list.
She has been honoured for her work in sparking young people’s interest in working in science, technology and engineering.
“I’m very thrilled and honoured to be awarded an OBE,” she said.
“It came as a massive surprise and it’s been very hard to keep quiet about it for the past four weeks.”
Philbin co-founded TeenTech, which holds events that introduce schoolchildren to technical and creative careers, in 2008.
Its mission was to give young people a realistic view of what it is like to work in jobs that have a high science, technology, engineering and mathematics component.
The organisation connects children with people that work in different technical sectors, allowing them to get a feel for the techniques, equipment and approaches used in those professions.
By giving children insight into how innovation and advances occur, Philbin aimed to increase competence in science, technology and maths and the jobs that rely on these areas.