After accepting a national science promotion award earlier this month, Waterloo Engineering’s Associate Dean of Outreach Mary Wells will receive another honour this week. On May 25th, Wells will be presented with the Engineers Canada's Support of Women in the Engineering Profession Award at their annual gala.
More information about this honour.
As chair of the Ontario Network of Women in Engineering since 2013, Wells has significantly expanded province-wide outreach activities aimed at recruiting more females to the field. At Waterloo, she chairs the Women in Engineering committee, serving as the driving force behind the CATALYST Women’s conference, Code Squad and a host of other programs targeting girls, teachers and parents.
Those efforts have paid off. Since her appointment as the inaugural Associate Dean of Outreach in 2008, Waterloo Engineering has seen the number of women in first-year classes double, hitting 30 per cent in 2016.
Meanwhile, as president of the Metallurgy and Materials Society, Wells shone a spotlight on female leaders in the profession through the “Women of Impact” project. She has also worked with the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers to establish a mentoring program for female graduates as they transition from academic training to professional careers.
As a result, Wells is regularly tapped for her expertise in attracting women to STEM careers — most recently as a speaker at a G7 conference in Tokyo.
Congratulations to an inspiring role model and dedicated champion for women in the engineering profession!
Also to be honoured are seven professional engineers from across Canada, receiving the highest honours in their profession at the prestigious 2017 Engineers Canada Awards to be held May 28th in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Those honoured will include Larry E. Seeley, PhD, P.Eng.; Veronica Knott an undergraduate engineering student; G. Ross Peters, PhD, FCAE, FEC, P.Eng.; Radar FLIR Ranger R20SS; Amy M. Bilton, PhD, P.Eng.; Jonathan F. Holzman, PhD, P.Eng; and Eduardo (Ted) Maulucci, P.Eng.
2017 Award for the Support of Women in the Engineering Profession - Mary Wells