AsianScientist (Jun. 23, 2022) – Regardless of a persistent gender disparity, feminine engineers proceed to be instrumental in among the most outstanding improvements and initiatives the world has seen.
Whereas solely 16.5 p.c of engineers worldwide are ladies, institutional efforts geared toward selling range and inclusivity have pushed a gradual enchancment of their illustration over time.
On this 12 months’s Worldwide Ladies in Engineering Day, we have a good time 5 award-winning feminine engineers from the 2023 Asian Scientist 100. From pioneering work in nanotechnology to constructing missile programs, these ladies are defying societal expectations and leaving an indelible mark on the historical past of this subject.
 >
Ashani Savinda Ranathunga: Reworking waste into sustainable infrastructure
 >
An advocate of ‘waste to wealth’, Dr Ashani Savinda Ranathunga is finest recognized for turning Sri Lanka’s industrial and agricultural waste into uncooked supplies for economical and greener building and growth initiatives.
The usage of fly ash and calcium carbide residues from industrial waste, together with agricultural byproducts like paddy husk and corn cob ash, for stabilizing tender soil has made it potential to create sturdy infrastructure. Utilizing the identical waste merchandise, Ranathunga can be rehabilitating depleted soil in deserted mines.
Her contributions have been acknowledged with the Brilliant Spark Lecture Award for the Most Promising Younger Geotechnical Engineer in 2020 and the 2022 OWSD-Elsevier Basis Award for Early-Profession Ladies Scientists within the Growing World.
As a lecturer on the College of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, Ranathunga empowers younger ladies in growing nations to pursue their calling in science and engineering.
 >
Athanasia Amanda Septevani: Constructing from plantation waste
 >
Pushed by an identical imaginative and prescient, Dr Athanasia Amanda Septevani dedicates her experience in materials science engineering to harness the potential of biomass waste generated from oil-palm plantations in Indonesia.
Presently a senior researcher on the Analysis Centre for Chemistry within the Nationwide Analysis and Innovation Company (BRIN) in Indonesia, Septevani’s group focuses on the modern chemical processing of biomass waste to develop high-value bio-based polymers like nanocellulose. Nanocellulose can function a promising materials constructing block, discovering purposes throughout various fields like packaging, electronics, power and well being.
Septevani’s translational efforts to collaborate with universities, authorities businesses and trade have garnered her accolades, together with the 2022 Japan Worldwide Younger Agricultural Analysis Award from the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) and the Merck Award for Younger Indonesian Scientists.
 >
Gurumoorthy Bhuvaneswari: Powering schooling
 >
Dr Gurumoorthy Bhuvaneswari is broadly acclaimed for her work on advancing energy converters to enhance energy high quality and for using superior applied sciences to assist her ardour for schooling.
A distinguished professor {of electrical} and electronics engineering at Mahindra College, India, Bhuvaneswari brings a long time of invaluable educating expertise to her function. She additionally engages with training engineers from numerous industries by her enlightening lectures to lift consciousness about energy high quality points.
Bhuvaneswari’s contributions have earned world recognition and led her to be elected as an esteemed worldwide member of the US Nationwide Academy of Engineering.
 >
Tessy Thomas: India’s Missile Girl
 >
Identified for an illustrious 35-year profession on the Defence Analysis and Improvement Organisation (DRDO) in India, Dr Tessy Thomas is an inspiration to ladies all over the place to enter male-dominated STEM fields.
Because the Director Basic of Aeronautical Programs at DRDO, Thomas shoulders the duty for all aeronautical programs, together with manned and unmanned aerial automobiles, aero engines, early warning airborne programs and subsonic cruise missiles.
With a perception that missiles may be devices of peace, Thomas emphasizes the notion that ‘power respects power’. In recognition of her pioneering work growing indigenous missile programs, she was honoured with the distinguished APJ Abdul Kalam award.
 >
Hsiao-Wen Zan: Reworking healthcare diagnostics
 >
Presently a professor on the Division of Photonics in Nationwide Yang Ming Chiao Tung College, Taiwan, Dr Hsiao-Wen Zan holds over 25 years of expertise in natural and oxide semiconductor analysis.
Zan was co-awarded the 2022 Franco-Taiwanese prize for her work with French researcher, Dr Olivier Soppera, advancing laser supplies and processes for the event of metal-oxide-based sensors as healthcare diagnostics. The sensor detects exhaled ammonia, a helpful biomarker that Zan found for assessing kidney perform in sufferers.
Zan holds greater than 80 patents for her modern innovations of novel structural semiconductor units and likewise takes on the function of chairing the ladies’s engineering group on the Taiwan department of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
—
Illustration: Yipei Lieu/Asian Scientist Journal
Disclaimer: This text doesn’t essentially mirror the views of AsianScientist or its employees.