Nominations are now being invited for the 2013 Karen Burt Award. Please download the form at the bottom of this page.

This most prestigious WES award is awarded to the best newly qualified woman Chartered Engineer. It is an annual award to encourage more women to aim for and celebrate the achievement of Chartered Engineer status. 

All Professional Engineering Institutions eligible to nominate candidates for the 2013 award will be notified in March, and the deadline for receipt of nominations (from the candidate) will be the end of July. Please contact the WES office at karenburt@wes.org.uk for further details of this year's award process. The award will be presented at the WES conference Harnessing the Energy on 4 October 2013 in London.

The 2012 award went to Kate Cooksey and was presented at the Ada Lovelace Live! event in London on October 16th 2012.

See the other previous winners here, and see the annual nominees from the BCS here.

What is the award and who is eligible?

Launched on 3 November 1998 by WES, the Karen Burt Memorial Award is made annually to a newly Chartered woman in the following disciplines – engineering, applied science, IT.

The award recognizes the candidate's excellence and potential in the practice of engineering and highlights the importance of Chartered status, as well as offering recognition to contributions made by the candidate to the promotion of the engineering profession.

How are nominations made?

Each participating accrediting engineering Institution nominates one candidate annually, following the normal institutional review process, with final selection by a WES panel on the basis of further information provided by the candidate. This latter stage focuses particularly on the candidate's contribution to the promotion of the engineering profession. The collaboration strengthens links between WES and the engineering Institutions and helps raise the profile of women engineers and encourage them to attain Chartered status.

Further information on the Karen Burt award

Individuals wishing to obtain further information about the award and the nomination procedure should in the first instance contact their own accrediting professional Institution. Institution managers who need further information should contact the WES office.

Who was Karen Burt?

As an active member and Council office holder in The Women's Engineering Society, Karen Burt was a tireless campaigner for the recruitment and retention of women in science and engineering. From her own experience and her extensive research she was regarded as an expert in the management of career breaks and women 'returners' to engineering.

Karen graduated from Newnham College, Cambridge and obtained a PhD from Reading University. She joined British Aerospace Systems at Stevenage as project engineer for scientific satellites and progressed to Senior Systems Engineer before developing an interest in management in the Total Quality Environment, and subsequently becoming Business Acquisition Manager.

Leaving BAe, she set up her own consultancy and was instrumental in establishing the Centre for Advanced Instrumentation Systems within University College, London. She had just accepted a position on the staff of UCL when her career was abruptly ended by a devastating stroke.

Karen is remembered as a gifted communicator and her fight to recover speech and mobility following her stroke was an inspiration to all who knew her.