The Karen Burt Memorial Award is an annual award made by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) to the best newly qualified Chartered Woman Engineer of the year in engineering, applied science and IT.
Launched on November 3, 1998, this award acknowledges candidates for their outstanding engineering excellence and potential. It also underscores the significance of Chartered status while recognising the candidate’s contributions to advancing the engineering profession.
Who was Karen Burt?
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 set up her own consultancy and was instrumental in establishing the Centre for Advanced Instrumentation Systems at University College London.
Dr Burt is remembered as a gifted communicator and her fight to recover her speech and mobility following a stroke was an inspiration to all who knew her.
Nomination process
Reviewers nominate candidates based on their commitment to promoting the profession.
The Awards Panel will review all nominees and select the ICE nominee to put forward to WES. The panel puts forward one ICE nominee each year.
The final selection process is overseen by WES and is based on further information provided by the candidate, particularly on the candidate's contribution to the engineering profession.
Most recent winner
The Karen Burt Memorial Award for 2024 was awarded to Kerry Evans, a Chartered Highways & Transportation engineer currently working on her PhD research.
Previous ICE winners
See previous ICE winners of the Karen Burt Memorial award below.
Need more information about our awards?
If you have a question about the Karen Burt Memorial award please contact us: