WISE Awards 2013

WISE are proud to announce the three highly commended and ten winners of the WISE Awards 2013 who received their awards from HRH The Princess Royal at the WISE Awards event at the Science Museum on 14th November.

A very big Thank You to all our sponsors; their support of the awards and continued commitment to the WISE campaign made this wonderful celebration possible. If you want to find out more about joining WISE, find out about our Membership packages.

"The desire to make a difference shines out from all the winners. These women (and girls) bring vision, creativity, commitment and above all, a passion for what they do which is truly inspiring. Britain needs more like them to bring their talents into UK industry. Then we will get the real re-balancing of the economy which the country needs."
Trudy Norris-Grey, WISE Chair

Watch the video of the event

Download the WISE Awards 2013 Event booklet “An Inspiration to us all” giving information about all the shortlisted nominees and winners, and sponsors.

Read the press release

View all the photos of the event

Read the supplement about women in STEM published in the Independent Newspaper on 4th December 2013

Intel provided a table quiz at the WISE Awards 2013, download the quiz here and test your knowledge. Check your answers here.

Congratulations to The IET table who won the quiz on the night and received a magnum of Champagne as their prize, courtesy of Intel.

The Winners

WISE Media Award (including Social Media) 

SPONSORED BY STFC

Recognising creative and innovative use of print, broadcast or online media to promote and inspire female talent in science, engineering and technology. 

Winner: It is Rocket Science for their highly imaginative use of stand up comedy to bring stories of female scientists to a non-specialist audience. 

Shortlisted: Dr Lucy Rogers 

Shortlisted: The Life Scientific

WISE Corporate Leadership Award

SPONSORED BY FACULTY OF ENGINEERING, THE UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE

For outstanding corporate commitment to the promotion of female talent in science, technology, engineering or the built environment. 

Winner: PepsiCo UK for the clarity of their approach - setting a target, conducting research and implementing a focussed programme which they can demonstrate has made a significant difference - increasing the proportion of women in senior roles from zero to 33% in just 3 years.

Shortlisted: Airbus Operations LTD

Shortlisted: Atkins

WISE Advisor Award

SPONSORED BY THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS

Acknowledging the key role played by teachers, advisors and mentors who inspire girls and young women to pursue science, maths and technology, particularly in subjects where girls are under-represented.

Winner: Kathryn Boulton-Pratt, Sheffield High School stood out not just because of the difference she is making to the choices girls make in her own school, but via the extra curricula activities she runs for local primary school children and a glowing testimonial from one of her former pupils: "I am one of the hundreds, if not thousands of students she has encouraged into science and engineering."

Shortlisted: Eileen Cockburn, Tain Royal Academy

Shortlisted: Margaret Heslin, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London

WISE Diversity Award

SPONSORED BY THE INSTITUTION OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

For organisations reaching out to women and girls from diverse backgrounds, particularly in communities where women are not encouraged to work in science, engineering and technology. 

Winner: Incommunities Group Ltd was chosen because of their proven track record in attracting and supporting female apprentices from disadvantaged backgrounds to work in construction - including young women from ethnic minority/Muslim communities in Bradford.

Shortlisted: Arup

Shortlisted: Institute of Physics

WISE Girl Award

SPONSORED BY INTEL

Recognises, celebrates and supports girls and young women who have shown outstanding potential in STEM (under 18 years). 

Winner: Saheefa Ishaq, The Redmoor Academy stood out because of her remarkable achievements at such a young age (13 years old) - representing the UK at an international science and engineering fair in the States, and setting up a website to inspire other young people. 

Highly Commended: Holly Giles, Portsmouth High School. The judges singled out Holly for special commendation because of her science blog, which is inspiring younger girls to be interested in science and engineering.

Shortlisted: April Selby, Portsmouth High School

Shortlisted: Clare Rees-Zimmerman, Sheffield High School

WISE Apprentice Award

SPONSORED BY the INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS and BBC ACADEMY

This new award is to celebrate the achievements of a female apprentice in any area of science, engineering or technology.  The sponsors will make a short film of the winner to showcase their achievements.

Winner: Hannah Stanbury, Defence Munitions Gosport. All our apprentice nominations were inspiring examples of young women breaking down stereotypes. The judges selected Hannah because of her success within a military environment.

Shortlisted: Kirsty Rossington, National Grid

Shortlisted: Sara-Jayne Barker, Nestle

WISE Excellence Award

SPONSORED BY THALES

Recognising the achievement of women in the early stages of their STEM career (<10 years). The winner has received a cheque for £1,000.

Winner: Jo Carris, Useful Simple Projects was selected because of her personal contribution to sustainability on major construction projects including London 2012, Rio Olympics and the Brazilian World Cup, as well as her commitment to raising awareness of opportunities to work in sustainable design and construction.

Shortlisted: Rachael Brennan, Cavendish Nuclear

Shortlisted: Jamie-Leigh Clayton, Parsons Brinckerhoff

All shortlisted candidates this year are engineers.

WISE Enterprise & Innovation Award

SPONSORED BY ATKINS

Profiling female innovators, inventors and entrepreneurs.

Winner: Dr Julie C Barnes, Abcodia Ltd stood out for the rapid commercial success of the biotech company she founded just 3 years ago, which will make an enormous difference to so many lives through earlier detection of ovarian and pancreatic cancer.

Highly Commended: Dr Anne Young, UCL Eastman Dental Institute. The judges awarded a special commendation to Anne, whose inventions have the potential to revolutionise dental care and treatment, as well as the treatment of the bone disease osteoporosis.

Shortlisted: Fiona Nielsen, DNA Digest

Shortlisted: Kate Craig-Wood, Memset

WISE Leader Award

SPONSORED BY AWE

Celebrating someone of either sex who has led the way in promoting female talent in science, technology, engineering or mathematics in education, research, business or industry. 

Winner: Valerie Gibson, Professor of High Energy Physics, University of Cambridge was chosen as a pioneering woman in physics, who has made a significant difference to the position of female scientists not just in her own university but is also investigating barriers affecting the pipeline of female talent coming through the wider education system.

Highly Commended: Nela Brown, PhD Researcher, Queen Mary University of London. The judges awarded special commendation to Nela, who whilst completing her own PhD, has set up innovative programmes to inspire girls and young women to engage with the male dominated field of computer science.

Shortlisted: Tricia Goodchild, University of Northampton

WISE Lifetime Achievement Award

SPONSORED BY MICROSOFT

This award is for a woman who has had a truly outstanding career in science, engineering, technology or the built environment in the UK. 

Winner: Elizabeth Kuipers, Professor of Clinical Psychology, King’s College London Institute of Psychiatry. After much deliberation, Elizabeth was picked as the winner because of the huge impact her work nationally and internationally on the treatment of people with severe mental illness, and because of her commitment to promoting female talent at senior levels within the research and clinical practice of psychology.

Shortlisted: Professor Ursula Martin CBE, Queen Mary University of London

Shortlisted: Dr Uschi Steigenberger, Science & Technology Facilities Council

Thank you...

FabLabs Manchester for creating the award trophies, Rick Bronks, event photographer - Satureyes Photography, to Carmel Harrison for her work on PR and to all our nominees and the guests at the WISE Awards 2013. We hope to see you again for the WISE Awards 2014, our 30th anniversary year.