Professor Rachel Oliver, Director of the Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride, will be named one of the Top 50 Women in Engineering 2020 by the Women's Engineering Society on International Women in Engineering Day, for her contributions to sustainable technology.
Founded by the Women's Engineering Society in 2016, the Top 50 Women in Engineering (WE50) awards are a UK event linked to International Women in Engineering Day (INWED) - the global celebration of women in engineering that takes place on 23rd of June each year.
The WE50 raises awareness of the skills shortage facing the engineering industry, highlighting the huge discrepancy between the number of men and women currently in engineering professions. The awards aim to change perceptions, encouraging young women to consider engineering as a viable and rewarding career.
The focus of this year's awards is "Sustainability" and Rachel is being recognised for her work on low energy light sources based on light emitting diodes (LEDs). In particular, Rachel has patented new manufacturing technologies for improving light extraction from LEDs. These improvements mean that less of the light emitted by the device is wasted. She is a founder of a Cambridge University spinout company, Poro Technologies Ltd, which is commercialising these technologies.
The award also recognises Rachel's work as an advocate for women in engineering, including her role as an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Champion in the School of Physical Sciences at Cambridge.
