Gail Long Early Career Woman Engineer of the Year Award
Open award for members and non-members
Award criteria
Purpose: The purpose of this award is to recognise women at an early stage of their career in any field of NDT/CM/SHM and associated science, engineering and technologies. It aims to raise the profile of women in engineering, and of NDT and its related disciplines and industries, with a contribution over a period of at least 2-5 years.
The award highlights activity in the following areas: contribution to the NDT/CM/SHM or wider engineering community; contribution in research, education, technological innovation; and the promotion and practice of NDT/CM/SHM. Nominees can be active in any relevant sector or industry.
The award is named in honour of the late Gail Long, winner of the BINDT Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017, who made a major contribution in the NDT community.
Details of the award: The award will consist of a certificate plus £300 cash/bank transfer, an invitation to either the NDT or CM Annual Conference Dinner and one night’s accommodation.
Eligibility: Nominees should have made a valuable contribution to the NDT/CM/SHM community, either through R&D, technology innovation, development or transfer, by developing strategies leading to new technology development and exploitation, by contribution to standards or by facilitating significant change in NDT/CM/SHM.
The suggested guideline on ‘early career’ is within 10-15 years of starting work as an engineer (excluding career breaks).
This is intended to recognise contributions over a period of at least 2-5 years.
The proposer of the award should be a voting member of the Institute. If they are not, they will need to ensure the application is endorsed by an Institute voting member.
Frequency: The prize will be awarded annually and will only be issued if suitable nominations are received.
Nomination arrangements: Nominations should be submitted by email to: karen.cambridge@bindt.org
Nominations for the award will be reviewed by the Membership, Qualification and Education (MQ&E) Committee. If there is only one nomination, then MQ&E should vote to confirm whether the nomination is eligible and, if so, to approve the award.
If there is more than one nomination, then the entries should be sent for judging by a panel set up for the purpose. Four members of the panel are to be appointed by MQ&E. Each judge will be invited to score the entries on a point scale of 0 to 3 and send the scores to Karen Cambridge, who will total the scores, and the entry receiving the most points will be declared the winner.
Awarding arrangements: The certificate and cash/bank transfer will be awarded to the winner at their choice of either the NDT or CM Annual Conference Dinner.
Committee: MQ&E and Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Group (DIAG).
Winners
2024 winners: Evelyn Grogan, Dr Misty Haith and Xin (Lily) Tu
The winners of the Gail Long Early Career Woman Engineer of the Year Award for 2024 are Evelyn Grogan, Dr Misty Haith and Xin (Lily) Tu.
Evelyn Grogan is Head of Human Resources at Applus UK and is based at its head office in
Grangemouth. With over 25 years of experience in human resources, she has dedicated nearly two decades to the non-destructive testing (NDT) industry. Evelyn has a strong foundation in learning and development and has worked extensively with providers to support the growth and development of talent within the NDT sector. She has played a pivotal role in the professional journeys of over 200 apprentices, from school leavers to fully qualified professionals. Evelyn has a degree in human resource management and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).Dr Misty Haith started off in physics, completing a BSc physics degree at Imperial College London in
2012. She then joined the NDE Research Group at Imperial, working towards an Engineering Doctorate (EngD). Misty’s EngD research was focused on developing new solutions in subsea pipeline radiography through improved defect characterisation methods. She completed her EngD in 2016 and joined Rolls-Royce Submarines as an NDE Research and Inspection Qualification Engineer. Since then, she has worked in a variety of positions within Rolls-Royce, including Group Lead for NDE Research and Qualification and NDE Business Lead for the Rolls-Royce Apprentice Scheme. Alongside this, she has been an active member of the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (BINDT). Misty achieved Chartered Engineer status with BINDT in 2021 and has been at various times a member of the BINDT Technical Committee and Technique Validation Working Group.Misty’s current role is Chair of the Inspection Qualification Body (IQB). The IQB is an independent review panel following European Network for Inspection Qualification (ENIQ) guidelines. Inspection Qualification is a formal process for demonstrating the reliability and performance of an NDT system and is very important within the nuclear industry. The IQB is responsible for reviewing inspections that require a high level of reliability, and approval that new inspection techniques meet the design requirements. The IQB also manages qualification of personnel for complex inspections through the use of blind trials. Misty enjoys the technical challenges of the work, getting to grips with a new inspection (which may be ultrasonic or radiographic) and identifying any potential weaknesses so the inspection can be improved.
Outside of work, Misty enjoys spending time with her daughter and working on her allotment.
Xin (Lily) Tu was born in Ningbo, China, in 1998. She received her MEng degree (First Class
Honours) in mechanical engineering from the University of Bristol in 2021. She is currently a final-year PhD student at the Centre for Doctoral Training (FIND-CDT) hosted by the Ultrasonics and Non-Destructive Testing (UNDT) research group at the University of Bristol. Lily has also been working part time on a research and development (R&D) project at the spin-out company from her research group since 2024. Her research interests include laser ultrasonics, array imaging and composite materials inspection.Past winners:
2020 Dr Maria Felice and Rachael Southgate
2021 Samantha McInnes-Rankin
2022 Danielle Elizabeth Adams
2023 Laura Hook (Hayday)
A nomination form can be downloaded here.
Details of all Institute awards can be found here.
