Jun 23 2016
An inaugural list of the top 50 Women in Engineering will be published in the Daily Telegraph for the first time on 23 June 2016 to coincide with National Women in Engineering Day.
The list, compiled by the Telegraph in collaboration with the Women’s Engineering Society will feature the UK’s top influential female engineers chosen from almost 900 nominations.
We had a very high response to this campaign and were hugely impressed with the entries. This list of amazing role models is a great way of raising the profile of our talented women engineers and making them more visible both within the industry and to the next generation.
Dawn Bonfield, Chief Executive of the Women’s Engineering Society who is also the founder of National Women in Engineering Day
The list includes many familiar senior engineers’ names such as Dame Ann Dowling OM DBE, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Naomi Climer, President of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), and Dame Judith Hackitt DBE, former Chair of the Health and Safety Executive and now Chair of EEF the Manufacturers’ Organisation. It also, however, includes some names that may come as a surprise, including Steph McGovern from BBC Breakfast, a former engineer who continues to do a huge amount to encourage the next generation into engineering, and Chi Onwurah MP – the only female engineer in the House of Commons.
The candidates on the list represent the broad range of engineering roles available including industrialists from the traditional built environment, energy and transport sectors, but also including names from Hilton Worldwide, the Merlin entertainment group and many representatives from academia. The list also includes women who are no longer working as practicing engineers but are nevertheless still influential in the sector.
I was really impressed with the calibre, quality and quantity of the submissions. Reading through the entries it was incredibly exciting to see the breadth of talent we have in our engineering community.
Judge Allan Cook CBE, Chairman of Atkins
Brief biographies of each one of the 50 engineers on the list will be printed in the Telegraph on 23 June and this will be accompanied by a breakfast launch taking place at the Institution of Engineering and Technology, Savoy Place, London WC2R 0BL to which all of the engineers listed and many of the other nominated candidates have been invited.
Sponsors of the campaign were Scottish Power, Mars Petcare, Jaguar Land Rover, SEMTA, the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and BAE Systems.