In June of this year, I am very pleased to announce that, I was awarded the title of Finalist, 2020 Top 50 Women in Engineering: Sustainability.
Each year the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) hosts an International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) which celebrates its seventh year in 2020. The event is held each year on 23 June and is a day of global celebration of women in engineering. Founded by the Women’s Engineering Society in 2016, the WE50 awards are a UK event linked to International Women in Engineering Day (INWED).
National Women in Engineering Day was launched for the first time in the UK on 23 June 2014 by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) to celebrate its 95th anniversary. In 2017, National Women in Engineering Day became international for the first time due to the interest and enthusiasm developed by the international audience and participants in the previous years. International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) was born to enable the celebration of women in engineering to become global.
The WE50 raises awareness of the skills shortage facing the industry, highlighting the huge discrepancy between the number of men vs. women currently in engineering professions. The aim is to change perceptions, encouraging young women to consider engineering as a viable and rewarding career.
The criteria for this year’s nominations were (nominees do not have to meet all criteria).
- A woman based in the UK with a connection to engineering or allied sector/discipline
- Involved in the formulation and/or delivery of sustainable strategies and solutions, addressing the challenges of the Climate Emergency, Net Zero Carbon and/or delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals
- Acting as an advocate for women in sustainability
- Studying or working in engineering industries and allied sectors, engineering education, or engineering research
- Achieving beyond what would normally be expected
- Acting as an advocate for women in work and in STEM
I was nominated by my colleague Dr Simona Aracri. Simona is a well-established, respected engineer and an excellent example of how competent and capable woman can be in STEM. So, to be nominated by someone such as Simona I am very grateful.
The work I was nominated for was some of the space and agricultural research I have conducted which encompassed the study of the soil composition on our Earth and other planets which holds potential to influence future agricultural management and to promote sustainable growth.
A small excerpt of a figure from just one of the journal papers published from this research.
SEM images of the craters produced by laser ablation of soil pellets with particle size ranges shown. Data for 20 laser pulses of 25 mJ of laser power [Yan, Donaldson et al RSC Adv., 2018, 8, 36886-36894]
When I was younger, I had not necessarily thought about my career ‘path’. However, I did know what I wanted to be and so I went out to get it. I had to constantly learn how to get to the next ‘level’ and reach those goals and dreams that I wanted. A goal of mine, and has been since being a child, is to work at NASA. It is incredible to me that I am now in a situation whereby this is not just a dream in the air anymore but a real and reachable possibility.
Therefore, for me, it is important that, now I am an establish Engineering Physicist, that I help the younger generation, and especially young woman, to follow their ambitions and dreams in STEM. With this in mind, I became a registered STEM Learning UK ambassador where I volunteer my time to encourage and inspire young people with the aim to inspire and support the next generation in the world of STEM. I have also been a private tutor in Science and Mathematics and it is a pleasure to me to be able to help young people with these subjects as being a young girl who once was in the same position.
The University of Edinburgh have written a short news article about this year’s awards won by its staff members. https://eng.ed.ac.uk/about/news/20200623/dr-camilla-thomson-named-top-50-women-engineering.
Many congratulations to Gunel Aghabayli for also being a finalist and to Dr Camilla Thomson on being named as one of this year’s Top 50 women in Engineering.
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