Attitude 101 2026: Here are the 10 figures who made our ‘STEM’ list

The pioneers of this year’s Attitude 101, empowered by Bentley are breaking new ground in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

The selection spans 10 sectors: Business; Fashion, Art & Design; Financial & Legal; Film, TV, and Music; Media & Broadcast; STEM; Sport; The Future (Under 25), supported by Clifford Chance; Third Sector & Community; and Travel, supported by Booking.com.

Below are the 10 LGBTQ+ minds who are pushing the boundaries and creating more inclusive spaces in STEM. See here for the full list of Attitude 101 2026 honourees.

Category leader: Dr Mark McBride-Wright MBE

Engineer Dr Mark McBride-Wright MBE is reshaping how engineering thinks about culture, safety and leadership. After experiencing first-hand the pressure to self-censor early in his career, he went on to found InterEngineering, one of the UK’s first peer networks for LGBTQ+ engineers, before establishing Equal Engineers to take that work across construction, manufacturing and STEM education. Through research, training and consultancy, his organisation supports women, LGBTQ+ people, ethnic minorities and disabled and neurodivergent engineers, while helping major employers build more inclusive teams.

Eric Bundy

Alongside a senior career in cloud consulting, Eric Bundy has played a prominent role in advancing LGBTQ+ inclusion within the tech sector. He has co-chaired Pride employee networks across Google UK and Google Cloud, helping to shape internal policy, visibility and support for LGBTQ+ staff. He has also led Pride Month programming and represented Google in external Pride activity. In his professional role at Google Cloud, Bundy works on the delivery of large-scale cloud transformation programmes for organisations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

William Dryden

Working within Great Britain’s electricity system, William Dryden leads power system operations at the National Energy System Operator, with responsibility for teams that help keep the lights on across England, Scotland and Wales. A former secondary school maths teacher, he previously founded STEM Bridge to encourage girls from minority backgrounds to take engineering and STEM degrees. Dryden is a visible advocate for LGBTQ+ inclusion in engineering, helping to shape workplace culture and policy, and was recognised at the 2023 Young Energy Professionals Awards for his diversity and inclusion work.

Dr Kevin Guyan

A Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, Guyan works at the intersection of data, policy and lived experience. His research focuses on how gender and sexuality are recorded, categorised and interpreted in data systems, and the impact this has on equality, public policy and decision-making. He is the author of Queer Data, which explores how identity data can be used responsibly for social change, and Rainbow Trap, examining the risks of inclusion without care in data collection and classification.

André K. Isaacs

Based at Massachusetts’ College of the Holy Cross in the US, André K. Isaacs is an associate professor of chemistry whose work spans teaching, research and public engagement. Born in Jamaica, he has built a substantial online audience as a science communicator, particularly through his playful TikTok videos that use colourful experiments and clear explanations to make chemistry feel more accessible and engaging, particularly to the LGBTQ+ community. Openly queer, Isaacs has spoken widely about representation, education and equity in science, using his platform to support greater visibility for LGBTQ+ people in STEM fields.

Leanne Pittsford

Since being founded in 2012, Lesbians Who Tech & Allies has grown into one of the largest global communities for queer women, non-binary people and allies working in tech. Leanne Pittsford has built its reach through international summits, mentoring and scholarship programmes, creating pathways into the industry and supporting career progression. One of the company’s initiatives is SquadJobs, a mentoring and recruiting platform for underrepresented technologists and recruiters. Before setting up Lesbians Who Tech & Allies, Pittsford worked in LGBTQ+ advocacy, including with Equality California.

Martine Rothblatt

A key figure in biotechnology, Martine Rothblatt founded United Therapeutics in 1996 after her daughter was diagnosed with a life-threatening lung disease, building the company into a leader in therapies for pulmonary arterial hypertension and related conditions. Earlier in her career, she founded Sirius Satellite Radio, which later became part of SiriusXM, creating technology now used daily by tens of millions of subscribers in the US. Trained as a lawyer and ethicist, she holds law, MBA and PhD degrees and has published widely on bioethics and technology.

David K. Smith

David K. Smith’s research explores nanochemistry and self-assembling materials, examining how molecules can organise themselves into larger functional structures with real-world applications. Alongside his academic work, he is widely known for education and public outreach, including an online platform challenging misinformation and negativity around chemistry. His writing extends beyond academia into award-winning cookbooks, including Bluesky Recipes for Difficult Days, which reflects on food, mental health and everyday life as a widowed single parent raising an adopted son.

Sophie Wilson

One of the most influential figures in modern computing, Wilson helped shape the ARM processor architecture first developed in 1985, technology now used in billions of everyday devices from smartphones to cars. She previously worked on the BBC Microcomputer, which introduced computing to a generation of UK schoolchildren. Her impact in the field is also reflected in more recent initiatives such as the University of Cambridge’s Sophie Wilson Scholarship for Scientific Computing, co-funded by Wilson, alongside honours including a CBE awarded in 2019 for services to computing.

Nathan Wren

Creating and developing science programming for a range of international TV broadcasters, Wren aims to broaden the public understanding of science through entertainment. His credits include Greta Thunberg: A Year to Change the World, Extinction: The Facts with Sir David Attenborough, and the upcoming comedy/science hybrid Meet the Planets for National Geographic. Wren has been active in inclusion work as co-founder and co-chair of BBC Studios Pride network, supporting LGBTQ+ visibility and growing an inclusive culture within the organisation.

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The full Attitude 101 list appears in issue 369 of Attitude magazine, available to buy now in print, on the Attitude app, or through Apple News+.