The PEGG

November, 2000

Award Honours Engineers Who
Make Profession Better For Women

Canadian engineers who help make their profession a great choice for women will soon be considered for a national award. The Canadian Council of Professional Engineers has added a new award to its Canadian Engineers' Awards program. It will recognize engineers who have demonstrated noteworthy support for women in the profession and established a benchmark of engineering excellence.

"Our hope is that the new award will help preserve the legacy of the 14 women who were massacred at Ecole polytechnique in Montreal on Dec. 6, 1989," said Noel Cleland, P.Eng., chairman of the CCPE. The Award for Support of Women in the Engineering Profession will be presented for the first time in May 2001. It's looked at as a tool for increasing public awareness of Canada's outstanding engineers, and of the ongoing efforts by the profession to welcome more women.

The Canadian Engineering Memorial Foundation has already broken ground in helping women. Founded in 1989, with significant financial support CCPE, the foundation awards both undergraduate and graduate scholarships to women engineering students. It also presents an annual engineering student projects award, as well as the Elsie MacGill Award in recognition of a university that has made significant contributions to improve the climate toward female engineering students.

The number of women enrolled in engineering undergraduate programs has more than doubled in the last decade. All nominations in the 2001 Award for Support of Women in Engineering Profession -- and the six other Canadian Engineers' Awards -- must be received by CCPE by Jan. 8, 2001. Information and terms of reference, as well as nomination forms, are posted on the CCPE's website, www.ccpe.ca.