WOMEN’S ENGINEERING SOCIETY

KAREN BURT AWARD 2017

The Karen Burt Award is an annual award made by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) to the best Chartered Engineer or Chartered Physicist in that year. It was established to draw attention to Chartered Engineer Status and to encourage more women to aim to become Chartered as early in their career as possible. There is a prize for the winning candidate of £1000.

Nominations are now being sought for this award with a deadline of 31st July 2017.

Dr Karen Burt was an eminent physicist who gained her PhD in electron microscopy at Reading University before joining British Aerospace Systems as a project engineer for scientific satellites. She set up her own consultancy and was instrumental in establishing the Centre for Advanced Instrumentation Systems within University College, London.

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

What is the award and who is eligible?

Launched on 3 November 1998 by WES, the Karen Burt Memorial Award is made annuallyto a woman engineer, applied scientist or IT professional, of high caliber who has recently attained corporate membership and Chartered Engineer status through her relevant institution.

The award recognises 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.

Making a Nomination

Participating accrediting engineering institutions can nominate one candidate annually, following an internal institutional review process. Final selection is made 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 engineering profession. The deadline for receipt of nominations (from the candidate) this year is 31st July 2017.

Professional Engineering Institutions are invited to begin their process of selecting a candidate who has gained chartered status since March 2016. Candidates can only be nominated once.

See the Karen Burt Award Terms of Reference for further details.

Further information

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


KAREN BURT AWARD 2017 TERMS OF REFERENCE

Aim: To commemorate the life of Dr Karen Burt, to encourage women to achieve chartered status and to promote the professions of engineering, applied science and Information Technology (IT).

This award is presented annually to a newly-chartered woman of a high calibre in engineering, applied science or IT, who has demonstrated a commitment to the promotion of her profession. The chosen candidate must have been awarded chartered status within 15 months after 1st March 2016, and can only be nominated once.

SPONSOR and BACKGROUND

Dr Karen Burt was an eminent physicist who gained her PhD in electron microscopy at Reading University before joining British Aerospace as a project engineer for scientific satellites. She had an extensive and varied career before leaving to establish her own consultancy. After playing a leading role in establishing the Centre for Advanced Instrumentation Systems at University College London, her career was tragically cut short by an early death. Karen influenced many people with her enthusiasm for engineering; she presented the Faraday Lecture and judged young designer competitions. She contributed to the work of the Women's Engineering Society, the Institution of Electrical Engineers and the Institute of Physics, in particular offering advice to companies on the recruitment and retention of women. She proved herself a role model to many by writing on career breaks and offering guidance based on extensive research and her own experience following the birth of her son. The range of her experiences and generosity made her an inspiration to all.

This award is funded by a bequest made by Karen’s father, Professor Cyril Hilsum, CBE, FRS, FREng., Leonard Weisberg FIEEE, a family friend, and colleagues Professor E P Raynes FRS and Dr Colin Waters.

PROCEDURE FOR APPLICATIONS

Application Forms A and B are attached here and additional forms can be obtained from the WES website at www.wes.org.uk/karen-burt-award.

Form A is not mandatory but can be used by the Institutions’ examiners/interviewers to select their best candidate. There is no requirement to return Form A to the Women’s Engineering Society. Each Institution is requested to nominate only one candidate, who must be a UK resident. Candidates can only be nominated once.

Form B should be sent by the nominating Institution to the selected candidate as soon as a selection has been made, and with sufficient time to enable the candidate to meet the deadline of 31st July 2017. The Institution should inform the Women’s Engineering Society of their chosen candidate as soon as possible, so that WES can liaise directly with the candidate to ensure that the nomination form is entered on time.

The completed Form B must be returned by the candidate directly to the Women’s Engineering Society, by email to Cath Heslop at , for final judging, before 31 July 2017. Please ensure that a confirmation is received for any nominations submitted.

The winner will be notified in early September 2017. She will be requested by the Women’s Engineering Society to make a 20 minute presentation on a subject related to her profession at an award ceremony which will take place at the Caroline Haslett evening Lecture in London in early November 2017.

We look forward to receiving your nominations.

WOMEN’S ENGINEERING SOCIETY

KAREN BURT AWARD 2017 – FORM A

To be completed by the Professional Engineering Institution’s selection panel. This form is not mandatory, and should not be returned to WES. It is provided for the benefit of the PEI’s selection panel to appraise each female candidate to facilitate the selection of one outstanding nominee. This nominee will then go forward for further consideration by the Women’s Engineering Society. Once you have selected your nominated candidate, please forward Form B to the candidate, and inform the Women’s Engineering Society of your choice of candidate and their email address by emailing Cath Heslop at . Please ensure that you receive a confirmation of your nomination.

All candidates must be UK residents. Candidates must have gained their Chartered status within 15 months after 1 March 2016. Candidates can only be nominated once.

Institute or Institution……………………………………………….

Candidate’s name……………………………………..

Candidate’s Reference (if used by Institution)……………..

Date ……………………..

Date the Candidate was awarded Chartership…………………………………………

Fair / Good / Excellent
Rating as practising Engineer
Involvement with her own Institution affairs
Involvement with activities to promote engineering in general
Communication skills
Enthusiasm for career
Future plans

List below any outstanding qualities that you think may be helpful in the selection procedure.


WOMEN’S ENGINEERING SOCIETY

KAREN BURT AWARD 2017 – FORM B

To be completed by the nominated candidate.

Congratulations, you have been nominated by your Professional Institute or Institution for consideration for the Karen Burt Award 2017. Background information about the award is given in the accompanying Terms of Reference. Please note that you must be a UK resident to apply.

Please complete the questions below using additional sheets if you wish, and return your completed application to the Women’s Engineering Society by email to no later than 31 July 2017. You may provide as much detail as you feel is necessary. Please ensure that you receive a confirmation of your submission.

Name:

Address:

Telephone Numbers:

Day Evening Mobile

E-mail:

Name of Nominating Institution:

Academic and Professional Qualifications:

Please give your Employment History:


(Karen Burt Award 2017 – Form B continued)

1.  Please outline any project with which you are particularly proud to have been involved, your role in the project, and the reasons why you have chosen this project. This may be a project you used as part of your submission to your Institution when you applied to become chartered. Please state any particular expertise you have. A Chartered Engineer, not necessarily one from your discipline, will assess your entry and so please bear this in mind when describing projects.

2.  Please state ways in which you have been active in promoting the engineering profession.

3.  Please outline your professional plans for your future.

4.  Please provide a short biography that can be used on the WES website to accompany your nomination. This should be written in the third person and should be in the region of 200 words in length.

5.  Please give any other information that you would like our judging panel to consider.

6.  Please provide a head and shoulders photograph to accompany your application, as a jpeg or gif file. Do not include a phone embedded in this document, it must be as a separate file.

Please use as many extra pages as necessary.

This information should be sent by email to Cath Heslop, Women's Engineering Society at . Please ensure that you get an acknowledgement for your entry.

Entries must be received by the deadline of 31 July 2017.

Should you win this award you will be invited to receive it and give a 20 minute presentation at a Caroline Haslett Lecture in London in November 2017.

The winner and unsuccessful candidates will be notified in early September 2017.

Good luck.

Women’s Engineering Society, Michael Faraday House, Six Hills Way, Stevenage, SG1 2AY Tel. 01438 765506