Arup engineer Clare Lavelle has been presented with the Karen Burt Award by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES).
The Karen Burt Memorial Award is the Society’s most prestigious accolade as it recognises professional excellence and the contribution made by the recipient to promote the engineering profession to young women. It is awarded each year to the best newly qualified woman Chartered Engineer.
During her career Clare has successfully delivered a number of technically challenging projects in the energy sector including the development of the world’s first commercial wave farm at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney and the development of Hammerfest Storm tidal technology. Clare has also helped over 2.5 GW of offshore wind projects in UK waters to successfully achieve planning consent.
As Arup Energy Consulting Business Leader for Scotland and the North East, Clare manages a team of consultants delivering technical commissions in the energy sector focusing on offshore wind, wave, tidal, oil and gas decommissioning and carbon capture and storage.
“It is a privilege to represent WES, who do such important work in improving the profile of women in the engineering industry. I’m glad to be able to contribute to these efforts to make the industry more accessible as I believe that greater gender balance is key to our profession being able to play an even greater role in society. From helping getting wave farms off the ground, to looking at capturing and storing CO2 – engineering has provided me with a challenging career and the opportunity to work on some incredible projects. I am excited about my future career and where engineering will take me.”
– Clare Lavelle, Scotland and North East Energy Consulting Business Leader, Arup
“Clare’s application was remarkable in all aspects of the four judging criteria of, quality of application, career progression and experience, future aspirations and most importantly the promotion of the profession. The judges were very impressed with her enthusiasm for engineering and commitment to encouraging girls into the profession. Although there were very few marks separating each of the candidates all three judges agreed Clare is a very worthy winner of the 2016 Award”.
– Linda Maynard, Chair of the judging panel, Women’s Engineering Society
Launched on 3 November 1998, the Karen Burt Award was founded in memory of Dr Karen Burt, a campaigner for the recruitment and retention of women in science and engineering.
