For more than four decades, Lady Helen Hamlyn has redefined design education through a visionary combination of creativity, collaboration, and social purpose.

Her journey began with the New Design for Old exhibition at the V&A in 1986, reframing ageing as a design challenge. She later founded DesignAge at the Royal College of Art, which evolved into the internationally acclaimed Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design (HHCD)—a pioneer in inclusive and human-centred design impacting design practice, policy, industry, healthcare, and design education.

Lady Hamlyn’s impact extends beyond traditional design education. As a designer she has brought design thinking into health, culture, and community development. Amongst her major initiatives are the endowment of the Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery at Imperial College London (2008) which brings together engineers, clinicians and computer scientists at the forefront of research in surgical robotics, founding Open Futures (2003), an award-winning learning programme for children in deprived areas which introduced new contexts for learning and supported schools to design a more holistic and expanisve curriculum. International projects in India, Portugal and the USA combine education, sustainability, and cultural preservation and demonstrate her belief that when communities are supported to design their own solutions, the results can be truly transformative.