Karen Burt Memorial Award
The Karen Burt Memorial Award is for the best newly qualified chartered engineer.
Who Was Karen Burt?
As an active member and Council office holder in The Women’s Engineering Society, Dr 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 in electron microscopy. 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.
“As WES strives to further diversity and inclusion within engineering, it’s heartening to learn about the efforts of so many individuals outside of STEM roles who are dedicated to doing the same. Their invaluable support has helped to make real change and will play a vital role in the future of women in engineering.“
WES Trustee and Head Judge Chrisma Jain said:
“On behalf of the judging panel, I would like to commend all of the nominees for the excellent work that they have done to help, encourage and of course inspire women to achieve as engineers. The high standard of nominations we received made for a fascinating and challenging judging process and I would like to thank everyone who applied for the transformational impact that you have made.”
2024 winner: Kerry Evans
Kerry is an outstanding winner of the Karen Burt award for the best newly chartered engineer. Kerry is a Chartered Highways & Transportation engineer. Kerry’s commitment to engineering and raising the opportunity for women engineers is second to none. Kerry has spoken at two WES conferences sharing her story to inspire others and was part of the Women’s Aid presentation to WES members about domestic abuse. Whilst this sharing of experience has been challenging, Kerry is a passionate advocate for change pushing for workplace policies that support domestic abuse victims and survivors. Kerry began her journey into engineering at college and is currently working towards her PhD. Kerry’s PhD research aims to create a more inclusive and collaborative environment between civil engineering and environmental protection disciplines where she is committed to opening doors for women in these fields, ensuring they are seen, heard, and empowered to succeed. Kerry has chaired the Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation (CIHT) annual dinner and enabled a balanced gender representation of VIPs and through her engineering work, she has made a pivotal difference in the safety of the Menai suspension bridge. Kerry is extraordinarily proud to be a woman engineer where she says everyday she knows there is something she does that benefits society, however small. Kerry’s irrepressible enthusiasm for women in engineering will inspire many others for years to come. Please join me in congratulating Kerry on her wonderful achievement as the Karen Burt award winner 2024.
Application Criteria:
- Each Institution may nominate one newly chartered woman engineer.
- The candidate must have achieved Chartership between 1 March 2024 and 29 February 2025.
- The candidate must be a UK resident. Candidates temporarily working outside of the UK will be deemed eligible only if their contract is under six months in duration, or if they are a serving member of the armed forces.
- Candidates can only be nominated once
Previous Winners:
Emma Walton
Eleanor Earl
Tina Gunnarsson
Mandy Lester
Susan Deeny
