Carla Lewark is CEO at Aerogearbox International. Sofia Aparício conducts research on the development and selection of natural solvents. Eduarda Vaz is doing PhD in the United States in artificial intelligence applied to genetics.
With different academic and professional backgrounds, these Técnico alumnae were the winners of the eighth edition of the Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo Award, established by Técnico to promote gender equality at the school and to recognise the crucial role played by women in all areas of engineering. The ceremony took place on 26 November at the Técnico Congress Centre, with the High Patronage of His Excellency the President of the Portuguese Republic.
‘Historically, engineering has had a clear under-representation of women in the profession,’ recalled Rogério Colaço, president of Técnico, in his opening speech at the ceremony. ‘By breaking down gender barriers and stereotypes, we create a more inclusive and welcoming environment, a fairer, freer and more open society, where women feel motivated and valued’ – this is the motto of this award, combined with the celebration of Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo, “a Técnico student and engineer who had a significant impact on Portuguese society”, the only female Portuguese Prime Minister to date.
More than ‘a question of social justice’, Rogério Colaço argued that ‘promoting gender balance is also a strategic necessity for the progress of engineering and scientific and technological development’, since ‘various social studies show that gender diverse teams are more innovative and effective’.
Sofia Aparício, one of the winners in the “Young Alumna” category, shares a part of her academic career with Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo. She completed a Master’s Programme in Chemical Engineering. ‘It’s very special for me to be recognised with an award inspired by one of the Portuguese women who best managed to overcome gender barriers throughout her career, becoming an example to everyone of how a woman’s place is wherever she wants it to be,’ she said in her speech. She also left a ‘very special’ thank you to the research group she is part of, ‘which quickly became a group of friends’.
She highlighted that her research focuses on the development of a sustainable, totally circular, and natural solvent-base process for the physical recycling of plastics. Published in the Green Chemistry journal and presented at national and international conferences, this research represents a significant advance in recycling complex plastic materials currently discarded.
Eduarda Vaz was also honoured in the “Young Alumna” category. She got into Técnico ‘driven by the long-held dream of graduating here’. ‘Between excellent professors, students’ organisations, internships in research laboratories and study nights at ‘Espaço 24’, I can say that Técnico has lived on in me,’ she shared. Part of this experience also involved being the marketing coordinator of Técnico’s Junior Enterprise (JUNITEC).
Guided by Inês Godet, winner of the first edition of this award in the “Young Alumna” category, Eduarda Vaz managed to realise her ‘dream’ of doing a master’s in the United States, at Johns Hopkins University, where she is currently a PhD student in chemical and biomolecular engineering. She thanked ‘all the extraordinary women – in this room and beyond – and all the equally extraordinary men striving to be leaders who enable this equality’.
Carla Lewark, winner in the “Role Model” category, graduated in Mechanical Engineering and was part of the first edition of the Master’s Programme in Design Engineering at Técnico, as well as the first edition of the Doctoral Programme in Leaders for Technical Industries (MIT Portugal Programme). She is currently CEO at Aerogearbox International (AGI), a joint venture between Rolls-Royce and Safran in France, Germany, the UK and Poland.
‘I remember deciding what I wanted to study at university when I was thirteen,’ she said. ‘When I started my mechanical engineering degree, we could count the women in the classroom on our fingers. I can only imagine what it would have been like in the 1950s. But that ‘didn’t intimidate Maria de Lourdes and perhaps motivated her to achieve her goals’, she commented. ‘These are the values that we want to instil in our children and we want them to pass on to their children, thus contributing to a better, more balanced, more inclusive, richer society.’
Graça Carvalho, Minister of Environment and Energy, attended the ceremony. She was the first award winner in the “Role Model” category and shares that the award ‘has a very special meaning for me and continues to be one of the distinctions I am most proud of.’ ‘I’m proud because I was a Técnico student, because I’m still a professor at this school because this is an award that celebrates women in engineering and, above all because it’s an award named after one of the women I admire the most’, she explained, adding that ‘it’s always a great pleasure returning home.’
Gender balance at work and in personal life – Técnico’s post-parental leave
Beatriz Silva, a professor and co-coordinator of the Diversity and Gender Balance Group at Instituto Superior Técnico, said that the school ‘continues to take significant steps towards building a more inclusive, equitable and representative academic community’, highlighting the post-parental leave measure already in force at Técnico and unprecedented in the country.
Ana Carvalho, a professor at Técnico who benefited from this measure, adopted two children in September 2023 and returned to work in March this year. If she hadn’t had access to post-parental leave, she ‘would probably have had to take sick leave’ to be able to manage her professional and personal life.
Post-leave has given her time to manage all these tasks – picking up the children from school, meeting new colleagues who have joined her team, updating the projects she had in hand and applying for new ones… ‘Basically, I was able to make up for the time I had “lost” and I had time to reconcile with the family part, which is indispensable’, she shared. ‘I want to thank Técnico and I hope it continues to develop more initiatives of this kind”.
