The Women’s Engineering Society (WES) has launched the 2021 Top 50 Women in Engineering Awards, and once again the competition will follow a public nominations process from which the top 50 will be selected.

This year’s theme is ‘Engineering Heroes’, to celebrate the ‘best, brightest and bravest women in engineering’ — those who ‘recognise a problem, then dare to be part of the solution’.

WES said: “In 2020-21, engineers around the world have played a major role in protecting and defending us from the Covid-19 pandemic. At the same time, the extraordinary public health crisis we are experiencing has brought into sharp focus how engineers also deliver and maintain critical services and infrastructure, keep civic society functioning at every level, and support lives and livelihoods.

“Moreover, we must not forget those engineers who also undertake world-leading research to tackle the long-term, structural global challenges of our time, especially climate change.”

In 2020, the Top 50 Women in Engineering focused on tackling climate change with its theme of Sustainability. WES received over 300 nominations for the awards. Full details of the criteria nominees will need to satisfy for the 2021 awards can be found on the WE50 web page.

The nominations were launched on 1 February and close at noon on 8 March, which is International Women’s Day. The awards will be presented at a virtual ceremony on 23 June 2021 in tandem with WES’s annual global campaign ‘International Women in Engineering Day’ (INWED).