Nominations have now closed for the Top 50 Women in Engineering Awards (WE50), run by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES). This annual event invited nominations from the general public, before an expert panel selects this year’s top 50. The awards ceremony will take place virtually on International Women in Engineering DAY (INWED), 23 June.

An expert panel will select this year's top 50 from the public nominations. Nominees can be at any career stage, and must be women based in the UK, and not previous WE50 winners.

The Head Judge of this year’s WE50 is Chartered Engineer Professor Catherine Noakes OBE, CEng, FIMechE, FIHEEM, Professor of Environmental Engineering for Buildings and Deputy Director of the Leeds Institute for Fluid Dynamics at the University of Leeds’ School of Civil Engineering. Professor Noakes is also Chair of the Environment and Modelling Group (EMG), a cross-disciplinary SAGE subgroup, advising the government on the physical spread of Covid-19.

The theme of the 2021 awards is ‘Engineering Heroes’, recognising the brightest and bravest engineers who perform every day ‘heroics’ as well as engineers who respond to emergencies. The word ‘hero’ is derived from the Greek hērōs, meaning ‘protector’ or ‘defender’. In the past year it is clear the role that engineers have played protective roles during the Covid-19 pandemic, both in moving rapidly to support public health needs as well as in maintaining critical infrastructure. In addition, engineering heroes also undertake world-leading research and innovation to tackle long-term global challenges, such as climate change.

For more details please see the WE50 page on the WES website: www.wes.org.uk/WE50