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    Elvira Fortunato wins the world’s largest engineering prize

    World Federation of Engineering Organizations recognizes “professional excellence and work impact” of the Portuguese scientist, who recently won the Pessoa 2020 Prize

    Scientist Elvira Fortunato has just won the WFEO GREE Award Women 2020, the largest international engineering award aimed at distinguishing the work done by women engineers worldwide. The application was submitted by the Order of Engineers (OE) and the online award ceremony will take place on 8 April. The researcher is an advisory member of this professional association.

    The award was launched in 2018 by the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO), “to recognize and give visibility to exceptional women engineers”, who have demonstrated “professional excellence and impact on their work, who are role models and leaders in your field. ” The overall objective of this initiative is “to promote diversity, inclusion and gender equality in engineering”. WFEO brings together national engineering institutions from 100 countries and represents more than 30 million engineers from around the world, being a member of the main group of the United Nations scientific and technological community and associated with UNESCO.

    Carlos Mineiro Aires, president of the Order of Engineers (OE), tells Expresso that “it is a pride for Portugal” and for the Order to “award the prize to Elvira Fortunato, which reflects the excellence of Portuguese engineering and science, as well as your diversity “. And that “is proof that technical competence, talent and innovation have no gender or geographical limitations, and that in Portugal there are top professionals who compete and are at the level of the best in the world”.

    “INSPIRATION FOR THE WORLD SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY”


    “In addition to the joy of betting on a winning bid, I cannot ignore that the competition was huge, because there were 22 strong candidates from all over the world, which makes it even more valuable”, recalls Carlos Mineiro Aires. In the submitted application, OE highlighted “the revolutionary character of the scientific solutions developed by the Portuguese engineer in the area of ​​materials and transparent electronics, with the production of the first oxide thin film transistors, using sustainable materials, fully processed at room temperature”. The president of OE now stresses that the prize “is also the recognition of Elvira Fortunato’s unique technical and scientific path, making her an inspiration for the world technical-scientific community, especially for young women and women who aspire to embrace and make progress in engineering and science ”.

    Elvira Fortunato is a materials engineer, vice-chancellor for Research at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, full professor at the Faculty of Science and Technology at the same university, director of the Materials Research Center (CENIMAT) and the associated laboratory i3N – Institute of Nanostructures , Nanomodeling and Nanofabrication. Two weeks ago she won the Pessoa 2020 Prize and last year she received several awards, such as the Horizon Impact Award 2020 from the European Commission, for her Invisible project, or the Estreito de Magalhães Award, from the Government of Chile. The scientist points out to Expresso “the international importance of the WFEO award, because it projects Portugal at a global level in the field of engineering in women”.

    @ Expresso

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