Invitation to Prestige Lecture and Presentation of the Karen Burt Award 2014
09/10/2014
On 29 October 2014, the Women's Engineering Society will host a Prestige Lecture given by Professor Ann Dowling DBE ScD FRS FREng, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, followed by the presentation of the Karen Burt Award 2014 for best newly qualified chartered engineer.
The event is free to attend, but booking is required.
Professor Dowling, Patron of WES, will talk about her engineering research work, giving a lecture entitled 'Towards a Silent Aircraft’, and will also give some insights into her historic Presidency of the Royal Academy of Engineering as the first woman President.
Professor Dowling is Head of the Department of Engineering and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Cambridge, where she is Professor of Mechanical Engineering and chair of the University Gas Turbine Partnership with Rolls-Royce. She has held visiting posts at MIT and at Caltech. Professor Dowling's research is on efficient, low emission combustion for aero and industrial gas turbines and low noise vehicles, especially aircraft and cars. She took up Presidency of the Royal Academy of Engineering in September 2014 for a five-year term.
The Women's Engineering Society has announced the winner of the Karen Burt Award 2014 as the Institution of Engineering and Technology's candidate Elaine Greaney. This prestigious annual award for a newly chartered woman engineer, now in its 16th year, recognises the candidate's excellence and potential in the practice of engineering, highlights the importance of Chartered status, as well as offering recognition to contributions made by the candidate to the promotion of the engineering profession.
Elaine Greaney is a lead Systems Engineer for Qinetiq, working on electric systems for spaceflight. One of the projects that Elaine is proud to have worked on is the thruster design for the European Space Agency's mission to send a spacecraft to the planet Mercury in 2016, where she worked with a team of six engineers. Elaine's ambition is to be the lead engineer for a large spacecraft mission. She is also a keen promoter of engineering to the next generation, and regularly acts as a role model at STEM careers events at local schools and events organised by the IET.
Elaine says of winning the award: "I am honoured to receive this award that recognises the achievements of female engineers, and I hope to use the support of the WES to publicise the number of exciting science and engineering career opportunities available to young people. I would also like to thank my employer QinetiQ for the opportunities that I have received during my career so far, and for their continued support with my outreach activities."
The Women's Engineering Society has a number of different mechanisms for supporting women in engineering, and through this award it recognises the importance of ensuring that women gain professional recognition of their achievements as early in their career as possible.
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