The Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards 2025
Congratulations to all our winners!
Young Woman Engineer of the Year 2025
Jennifer Barry
Senior Systems Engineer at Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL)
Mary George Memorial Prize for Apprentices winner
Rachel Donaghey
Service Introduction Manager at NATS
Women’s Engineering Society (WES) Prize winner
Amy Dillon
Associate Engineer at Design ID and Director of The Think Design Engineer Foundation and The Big Bridge
Gender Diversity Ambassador Award winner
Vince Pizzoni
Professor in Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the University of Nottingham
Ceremony hosts
Many thanks to former Young Woman Engineer of the Year winners for hosting the ceremony – Ama Frimpong (2022 winner) and Sophie Harker (2018 winner).
In Memorium: Mrs Erzsébet Kibble 1953 - 2025
Erzsébet Kibble was the winner of the first ever Girl Technician of the Year Award in 1978 – the forerunner of Young Woman Engineer of the Year.
Born in 1953 in rural Mezőberény, Hungary, her aptitude in physics and maths meant she moved at 14 years old to Budapest to study at the Telecommunications Technical College. Whilst in college she also obtained her licence to fly gliders and studied English. At 18 years old, she took an au pair job in London, fell in love with an Englishman and they married in Hungary the following year.
Her career included working for Ericsson, where she was responsible for the commissioning of the first ever computerised telephone exchange in the UK.
In 1978 she won the first ever award for the Girl Technician of the Year (now known as Young Woman Engineer of the Year) and later in 1981 she obtained her BA from the Open University.
From the 1980s onwards she continued to work with computers and raised a family. She took early retirement and spent many happy years sailing, traveling, learning languages, gardening and becoming a beloved grandmother to her granddaughter Ellie.
Erzsébet passed away in 2025. She was a remarkable woman and is greatly missed by all her family.