Celebrating the centenary of Verena Holmes, our first woman member

We proudly celebrated the 100th anniversary of Verena Holmes being elected our first woman member in February 1924, with an event at Birdcage Walk to champion women engineers and spotlight their impact on society.

Elizabeth Donnelly, CEO of the Women’s Engineering Society of which Verena Holmes was a founding member, gave a lecture about her life and legacy highlighting her work as an inventor but also the barriers she faced having joined the Institution as an associate member in 1924 but only becoming a full member in 1944.

Elizabeth Donnelly said:

“This is a historic occasion. Verena showed immense talent as a woman engineer and had a determination to succeed. She was determined to support women engineers partly as a result of her experience at the Institution where she had to wait 20 years to become a full member.”

We also had the pleasure of a talk from Alice Kan CEng FIMechE, Life Sciences Director of Kan Do Ventures, about how she led direct the development of the manufacturing process and facility to produce 100m doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for supply to the UK Government in 2020.

Alice and Elizabeth joined our inspirational panel whose members talked openly and honestly about how the Institution, engineering organisations of all sizes, and individuals can actively support women to thrive in their careers.

We also unveiled our beautiful new portrait of Verena Holmes, with thanks to talented and passionate artist Sally Ede-Golightly.

Verena Holmes was one of the founding members of the Women's Engineering Society and served as its President in 1930 and 1931.

Discover our women engineers profiles here.