IMS, INWED highlight women’s accomplishments in engineering
Executive Editor
Two recent events—the International Microwave Symposium (IMS) and the International Women in Engineering Day (INWED)—highlighted progress women have made and are making in engineering disciplines.
At IMS, June 10-15 in Philadelphia, Dominique Schreurs, the first woman to hold the title of president of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S), welcomed attendees to the event, which carried the theme “microwaves, medicine, mobility” and was co-located with the International Microwave Biomedical Conference (IMBioC).
Schreurs noted that women make up only 5.5% of MTT-S membership, a figure she would like to see increased. To that end, IMS included a session organized by “Women in Microwaves,” a group representing women in engineering working within the microwave field and typically active within the MTT-S. Men supportive of women in the microwave industry were invited to attend the session but encouraged to bring a female friend.
Representative of women’s achievements in the fields of engineering and medicine at the “Women in Microwaves” event was Prof. Caterina Merla, who received her Ph.D. in electronic engineering and M.D. degrees from Sapienza Università di Roma, and who has worked on microfluidic chambers at Lehigh University. She delivered a keynote address on working at the frontier of engineering and biology with a focus on linear and nonlinear optical microspectroscopy to understand electropulsation mechanisms on cells. Her work involves multidisciplinary efforts to assess experimental cell-membrane permittivity and to investigate theoretical electromagnetic field distribution with respect to single-cell microdosimetry. In keeping with the social-networking theme of the “Women in Microwaves” event, which included a reception at the Pennsylvania Academy for the Fine Arts, she acknowledged supportive colleagues and stimulating collaboration between U.S. and European researchers.
INWED began in the UK on June 23, 2014, as the National Women in Engineering Day, and has subsequently gone international, with support from UNESCO and sponsors including companies such as Amazon, BAE Systems, Boeing, and Wiley. Tektronix celebrated this year’s June 23 event by recognizing the accomplishments of former Tektronix engineer Connie Wilson, who worked at the company from 1957 to 1974 and led the development of the CRTs used in early oscilloscopes in the 1960s. The company is establishing an achievement award in her name and will be making donations to organizations that encourage women to enter engineering.
Wilson had neither an engineering degree nor a bachelor’s degree in any subject, having been forced by family issues to give up her college-level studies in biology. Instead, Tektronix reports, she was driven by curiosity and a deep desire to learn with encouragement from her supervisors. She became project leader of the group responsible for designing CRTs and in the process designed the CRT for the Model 540 series of oscilloscopes and for the Model 556 dual-beam oscilloscope. In 1964, she helped design the Model 545-B and 547 oscilloscopes, which became industry standards.
“The story of Connie Wilson is truly an inspiration for us all,” said Aliza Scott, vice president for human resources at Tektronix. “She taught herself engineering and overcame every obstacle in her way to design what was a critically important piece of technology for Tektronix at the time. It is in her honor that we expand and strengthen our efforts to bring more women into engineering and celebrate the accomplishments of those who came before us.” Scott has more on Wilson in a blog post, linked to in the online version of this editorial.
Scott concludes her blog post with this apt quote from Wilson from February 1962 that still applies today to women as well as men: “If we draw our strength from the uniqueness of each individual, together we become more than the sum of our numbers.”
