IET crowns young woman engineer of the year

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) has announced its young woman engineer of the year 2008 at a special awards ceremony.

Hanna Sykulska was declared overall winner. The 26 year old will become an ambassador for the profession, as well as receiving a glass trophy and a cheque for £1000.

She said: “I am really delighted to win such a prestigious award. It’s a great honour and privilege and I look forward very much to sharing my experiences as an engineer and hope to inspire many talented young women to enter this exciting field.”

Sykulska, from Oxford, has been working at Imperial College Electrical Engineering Department for four years. Among other achievements, she worked on the Phoenix NASA mission as an Instrument Downlink Engineer. She was the youngest member of the team.

The young engineer also won a world tour in the IET Write Around the World 2006 competition.