School alumnus Sue Deeny wins Karen Burt Award for fire engineering

Fire fighting in action
Fire fighting in action
Dr Susan Deeny, who gained her undergraduate and doctorate degrees from the University of Edinburgh, was announced the winner of the Karen Burt Award 2018 by the Women’s Engineering Society in October, in recognition of her contribution to fire engineering. 

The prestigious award is given annually to a newly Chartered woman engineer and recognises excellence in the practice of engineering and the promotion of the profession. 

Fire safety design

Sue, who is currently Senior Fire Engineer at Ove Arup & Partners, was nominated by the Institution of Fire Engineers for her significant contribution to structural fire engineering, including her distinctly creative approach to fire safety design and outstanding individual research. Sue is also recognised in the field as an expert witness, including during recent contributions to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. 

Career inspiration

Sue reacted to the award by saying “I am truly delighted to receive the Karen Burt Memorial Award from the Women’s Engineering Society. Engineering has been such a challenging and rewarding career for me. 

“As a fire safety engineer, my work has helped to shape the built environment in all parts of our lives – our homes, schools, hospitals, places of work and infrastructure. I was drawn into engineering by the buzz of seeing my work shape the world around me. I believe our built environment would be better for all of us if the people engineering it are representative of our society. ”

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