Celebrating Women's History Month 2024

A graphic for Women's History Month, with the text

We are proud to celebrate Women’s History Month.

People across the world benefit from the perspective that women bring to engineering and from the positive difference those engineers make.

We are a healthier and better society thanks to women engineers. Hannah Zierden, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, and her students are conducting research to help prevent preterm birth. The Clark School’s International Genetically Engineered Medicine (iGEM) Team’s research on cervical cancer is helping to develop low-cost testing for people in developing countries.

We are better at understanding the natural world, and how we interact with it, thanks to women engineers. Mary Bowden, aerospace engineering senior lecturer, Keystone instructor and director of our Space Grant Balloon Payload Program, and her students are launching balloons to gather large amounts of atmospheric data during a targeted window of time: an eclipse. Students Kruti Bhingradiya and Madelyne Rossman were named among Aviation Week Network’s Class of 2024 20 Twenties, recognizing young engineers already making their mark.

We are protecting our built world thanks to women engineers. Materials Science and Engineering doctoral candidate Gillian Boyce is researching how to protect statues, monuments, and other cultural heritage markers.

We are opening the doors of opportunity thanks to women engineers. Senior Sierra Raspa started the Women in Engineering (WIE) Code Program, giving incoming first-year students a chance to develop their coding skills. Senior Marisol Hernandez, chair of WIE’s Student Advisory Board, is actively working to support Latinas in engineering.

These are a few examples of impact from across the Clark School and there are many more. During Women’s History Month, we will publish additional stories on our digital platforms, and we encourage you to engage with and share them.

Even more, we encourage you to help us build a more open and inclusive community, profession, and incoming pipeline of engineers.

Engineering is most powerful when it draws in the greatest variety of voices and viewpoints. In that spirit, we are proud that for the first time in Clark School history, 28 percent of the undergraduate class is composed of women, and 29 percent of students graduating with bachelor’s degrees identify as women, putting our school ahead of national trends. We look forward to working together and growing female representation, voices, and viewpoints in our community. This is imperative because it will make the positive impact that engineering innovations have on society better than today.

Published March 7, 2024