Australia's top woman engineer receives inaugural Ada Lovelace Medal

Mary O’Kane, the NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer, has won the inaugural Ada Lovelace Medal for an Outstanding Woman Engineer, a new national award that recognises the contribution Australian women have made to the profession and to wider society.

“Mary O’Kane has made an outstanding and lasting contribution to Australia through her intellect, tenacity and commitment, and through numerous and diverse roles over the past 30 years,” said Mark Hoffman, Dean of Faculty of Engineering at the University of New South Wales, which created the award.

“She has been involved in many fields: from her original specialisation of speech recognition and artificial intelligence, to stimulating Australian innovation, national energy policy, higher education, international development, computing and the fostering of young women and early-career researchers,” he added. “Her career shows what a vital contribution women can make to engineering, and to the nation, and we hope many more women will be inspired by her example.”

Richard Sheldrake, a former Director-General of the NSW Department of Primary Industries and one of O’Kane’s nominators, said her “contributions have not only benefited the people of Australia, but also people in communities throughout the world. She is a remarkable Australian, and a truly worthy recipient of the Ada Lovelace Medal for an Outstanding Woman Engineer.”

The Ada Lovelace Medal is named for Augusta Ada Byron, later Countess Ada Lovelace, an English mathematician who worked on Charles Babbage’s revolutionary mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. Her remarkable notes on the engine in the 1840s include what is recognised today as the first computer algorithm, making her the world’s first computer programmer. Her story reminds us that women have been in engineering for a long time, and making vital contributions.

Mary O’Kane was born in Toowoomba, Queensland, and graduated from the University of Queensland in 1976 with a BSc in Physics and Mathematics and Honours in Physics. In 1996, she became the first female Vice-Chancellor of the University of Adelaide in its 125-year history.

The 80 by 4 mm medallion is antique gold plated on a cast zinc-alloy base; its design is modelled on the Olympic medals. Weighing 140 g, it has a 3D engraved depiction of Ada Lovelace on one side and the Faculty of Engineering’s logo on the other.

The medal was presented at the annual UNSW Women in Engineering Awards reception held at The Mint, the elegant collonaded coining factory that is central Sydney’s oldest public building.

Two other awards were the Judy Raper Award for Leadership, won by Athena Venios, Technical and Group Director at the engineering firm AECOM; and the Maria Skyllas-Kazakos Young Professional Award For Outstanding Achievement, won by Monique Alfris, co-founder and director of Pollinate Energy.