June 27, 2014

UOW engineers recognised as among the most influential in Australia

Six UOW staff and graduates named in Australia’s top 100 most influential engineers.

The contribution UOW engineers make to society has been recognised with six staff and alumni recognised as being among Australia’s top 100 most influential engineers by peak industry organisation Engineers Australia.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Judy Raper was among those recognised in Engineers Australia magazine’s 2014 list of Australia’s Top 100 Most Influential Engineers, which highlights the influence of outstanding engineers in all spheres of society.

In addition to Professor Raper, the 11^th publication of the Top 100 most influential also includes five UOW engineering alumni: Alex Baitch (Engineers Australia), Mark Cutifani (Anglo American), Bronwyn Evans (Standards Australia), Graeme Hunt (Transfield Services) and Alex Zelinsky (Defence Science and Technology Organisation).

UOW's engineering strength was recognised in the announcement, with 6 per cent of the top 100 having completed their engineering degree at UOW.

Award recipients are involved in any number of categories, from academia to industry, with the primary criteria for the awards focusing on the level of influence the engineer has been in their field of endeavour over the past year. 

Professor Raper was appointed UOW Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) in July 2008 and her current portfolio includes higher degree research students, grants and commercial research.

“Being influential in this field I think means having an effect on people in a variety of fields and enabling people to do the best research they can,” she said. “An achievement like this with six UOW engineers being recognised shows that our teaching and research efforts are leading to quality graduate engineers.”

Professor Raper said her recent career highlights included the growth in research activity and reputation at UOW in the past five years as well as the recent launch of the Global Challenges research program and the success of the Solar Decathlon student initiative.

Her distinguished research career in chemical engineering has led to a number of prestigious awards including the Sheddon Pacific Award for the most outstanding young chemical engineer in Australia in 1992 and the Professional Engineer of the Year in 1998.

In 2003 her contribution to the engineering profession in Australia was recognised by election to the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in Australia and as an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia.

Yet her entry into engineering began after being told it was too hard a subject.

“My older brother’s friends one day said, ‘don’t study engineering, it’s very difficult’,” Professor Raper said. “That inspired me to show I could. I also wanted to do something that had impact and you can change people’s lives with engineering.”

“Attracting girls to engineering is a long-standing problem. If you’re not getting girls interested in the subject you lose half the population. We need better maths education in schools across the board and more role models and focus on maths, technology and engineering.”

A selection of key insights from the 2014 Top 100 includes:

• 11 per cent of the Top 100 were women
• 75 per cent of the Top 100 were members of Engineers Australia
• NSW is the place of work for almost half (43 per cent) of the Top 100, and 39 per cent of the entire listing graduated from NSW universities including UOW with 6 per cent.

More: The full list was published in the June edition of Engineers Australia and is available online.

Media contact: Grant Reynolds, Media & PR Officer, on +61 2 4221 4743, +61 417 010 350 or grantr@uow.edu.au.