Stacey Marple, Castolin Eutectic Project Manager, is awarded Top 50 Women in Engineering Prize

Stacey Marple, the Castolin Eutectic  - Monitor Coatings Project Manager who dealt with the HMS Queen Elizabeth Carrier Deck Coating in the UK, was awarded the Top 50 Women in Engineering Prize on 26 June. The award, handed by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) in partnership with The Telegraph, celebrates achievements of women in engineering and aims to change perceptions and encourage young women to consider engineering as a viable rewarding career.

The event was hosted by the Royal Academy of London and Stacey Marple was accompanied by Madeleine Rushforth, Quality Manager at Castolin Ireland in Dublin, who is also a great example of brilliant women with technical vocations. Sectors in which the 50 winning women are employed include structural and electronic engineering, health, environment and academia. The winners are all at very different stages in their careers, varying from early career engineers to senior leadership and from a crane operator to lecturers.

Kirsten Bodley, Chief Executive of WES, explained the selection procedure for the Top 50: “The nominations were all amazing. For the Top 50, we looked for women who had overcome hurdles and returned to or transferred into/or across roles in engineering. In addition, they have all demonstrated that they are doing something to help support and inspire other women to succeed and progress in engineering whether it is working within their organisation through mentoring or inspiring young women through STEM activities for example”.

Stacey Marple is currently part of the Castolin Eutectic - Monitor Coatings team in Newcastle, UK, who worked on the project to coat the flight deck of the Royal Navy’s new Aircraft Carriers, the largest ever built for the Navy, capable of carrying up to forty aircraft. When the powerful F-35B jet engines are directed downwards onto the deck during a vertical landing, the gas wash of the engines would have damaged a traditional flight deck paint system. Stacey’s engineering career started when she won a Royal Air Force bursary to study Aerospace Engineering at Coventry University. She later served as a Royal Air Force Engineering officer for eight years, operating in Afghanistan as Junior Engineering Officer on Chinook helicopters and also on a project managing a £59 million procurement project for Ministry of Defence.

Founded in 1919, the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) is a not-for-profit network of women engineers, scientists and technologists offering inspiration, support and professional development. WES promotes gender equality in the workplace and encourages the study and application of engineering through awards and grants schemes.