There Is Only One Yvonne Brill
nitiallybaffled at receiving
A long career of engineering achievements in the aerospace
industry recently took Yvonne Brill to the White House to
accept the National Medal of Technology and Innovation
from the President of the United States.
8 SWE· WINTER 2012
I
a message that she had been
named the recipient of the
2009 John Fritz Medal, engineer-
ing's highest honor, Yvonne Brill
asked her friend and colleague
Jill Tietjen, P.E., F.SWE, "Is there
another Yvonne Brill?" Tietjen, who
had nominated her for the Fritz
Medal, assured Brill that the selec-
tion committee had not mistaken
her for someone else.
No one else was surprised
that Brill, an aerospace rocket
propulsion pioneer, was honored
with the Fritz Medal. In 1967,
she invented the electrothermal
hydrazine thruster (EHT) system, an
advance that was a game changer in
the development of the worldwide
satellite communications network.
The EHT has become the industry
standard and is a feature, in
Tietjen's words, "on virtually every
communications satellite aloft."
Brill has received many honors and
awards for her work, including the
SWE Achievement Award in 1986,
the SWE Resnik Challenger Medal
in 1993, and a NASA Distinguished
Public Service Medal. A member
of the National Academy of
Engineering, she was inducted into
the National Inventors Hall of Fame
in 2010 and was the first woman
inducted into the New Jersey
Inventors Hall of Fame.
On Oct. 21, 2011, Brill received the
National Medal of Technology and
Innovation from President Obama
in a ceremony at the White House.
This award, which recognizes
lasting contributions to the nation's
economic, social, and environmental
progress, is the highest honor
bestowed by the president on
engineers and inventors.
Again, Brill was caught off guard.
She said, "When I received the call
President Obama congratulates Yvonne
Brill on receiving the National Medal of
Technology and Innovation.
telling me that I had been selected
as a recipient of the National Medal
of Technology and Innovation, I
thought they had phoned the wrong
person!" Noting that receiving SWE's
Achievement Award led to many other
professional honors, Brill said, "I have
to thank and credit Jill Tietjen, who
has an unparalleled track record of
nominating women for awards, for
the series of prestigious awards I have
recently received."
A video of the entire awards
ceremony, including Brill receiving
the medal from President Obama, is
available at httpr//www.youtube.com/
watch?v=LabE7xXtF-g. The segment
featuring Brill is toward the end.
Sharing the Pioneering Spirit:
Kate Gleason and Yvonne Brill
On Nov. 14,2011, the ASME Foundation presented the inaugural Kate Gleason
Award for a lifetime of achievement in engineering by a distinguished female
engineer to Yvonne Brill. The ceremony took place in Denver at the ASME 2011
International Mechanical Engineering Congress honors assembly. Brill was
recognized for expanding the frontiers of space through innovations in rocket
and jet propulsion.
Both Gleason and Brill ventured where no women had gone before. Brill
entered the field of rocket science when it was very new, and when she was one
of the few women jet propulsion engineers in the country. Gleason was the first
woman to study engineering at Cornell University, the first woman to become a
member of ASME,and the first woman in the United States to be president
of a bank.
Brill said, "Kate was truly a pioneer. She just went about and did what she had
to do. I've always felt that way, too. I think I have her spirit:'
To see a video about Yvonne Brill and her selection for the Kate Gleason Award,

Awards make an impact
Tietjen has been a SWE member
since 1979 and was national
president from 1991 to 1992. She is
a consulting engineer in the electric
utility industry. Her other career as
a nominator of women engineers
for awards started in 1988 at her
first meeting of the SWE board of
visit www.youtube.com and search for Yvonne Brill bio by mibpro.
directors. Then-President Suzanne
J enniches asked for volunteers to
submit a nomination for the National
Medal of Science and the National
Medal of Technology. Said Tietjen,
"I didn't see why we should let this
opportunity go by, so I raised my
hand."
Ever since, Tietjen has made it
her mission to nominate women
scientists and engineers for high-
profile awards. She nominated
Brill for the National Medal and
for induction into the New Jersey
Inventors Hall of Fame and
the National Inventors Hall of
Fame. Tietjen is convinced that
if scientific and technical women
are to get recognition, they must
nominate one another for awards.
"There are so many women whose
accomplishments need to be
recognized," she said. "They are role
models to the rest of us."
Tietjen served on SWE's awards
and recognition committee, and for
14 years was SWE's representative
on the selection committee of the
National Inventors Hall of Fame.
She helped nominate Kristina
Johnson, Ph.D., the first woman to
win the John Fritz Medal, and she
nominated Admiral Grace Murray
Hopper, Ph.D., for the National

Jill Tietjen, left, nominated Yvonne Brill

for the National Medal ofTechnology
and Innovation. They are shown at a
reception honoring the recipients.

10 SWE·WINTER2012
Medal of Technology in 1991. Tietjen
is currently preparing numerous
nominations for the National
Women's Hall of Fame and has many
submitted nominations in process.
Nominees tend to be overly humble
about their accomplishments, but
Tietjen has learned not to let this
stop her. "Women engineers focus on
their work," she said. "We do what we
have to do, and if somebody thinks
our work is deserving of an award, it
comes as a big surprise."
Brill herself has worked tirelessly
to recognize women engineers and
scientists. She has nominated many
women for membership in the
American Institute of Aeronautics
and Astronautics and the aerospace
engineering section of the National
Academy of Engineering. She has
been a nominator for the SWE
Achievement Award, the SWE Resnik
Challenger Medal, and the SWE
Entrepreneur Award. Brill believes
that although awards may not
interest middle and high school girls,
web sites like the National Academy of
Engineering's "Engineer Girl," which
showcases engineering as an exciting
career for women, have a positive
impact on this age group.
According to Brill, awards mean
more to working engineers. She
observed that, "for women who
are just launching careers, SWE's
Distinguished New Engineer (DNE)
Award has a large impact. In any
given year, more than one DNE
is recognized, providing multiple
early-career role models. This
level ofrecognition and the mid-
career Emerging Leader Award
provide broad encouragement to
a large number of women. The
public recognition of technical
accomplishment provided by the SWE
Achievement Award encourages mid-
career women engineers pursuing
a technical career path. That was
certainly the case for me!"
By Meredith Holmes, SWE Contributor

E4C: Positively Impacting Humanity

SWEjoins effort to solve global humanitarian problems based
on community engagement and technical skills.

T
he Society of Women Engi-
neers has joined an innova-
tive effort to encourage young
engineers to become part of an
online network to help solve global
humanitarian crises and to develop
principles to govern their work. The
effort, Engineering for Change LLC,
uses the acronym E4C - common to
young people who would rather text
than email.
Noha EI-Ghobashy, E4C's
president, said the idea
appealed to her because she
became an engineer "to make
a difference and an impact
effort but cannot travel may still offer
on humanity." El-Ghobashy,
who earned her bachelor's
and master's degrees in
mechanical engineering from
Columbia University in New York,
also serves as director of technical
programming and development for
ASME. ASME is a not-for-profit
professional organization that cc;>-
founded E4C with the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers
and Engineers Without Borders-USA
in January 2011.
SWE's agreement calls for SWE to
leverage internal communications
channels to generate awareness of
E4C, which, in turn, will spotlight
SWE's efforts in the humanitarian
space on the E4C online platform.
"Engineering for Change is an
innovation that will transform how
engineering talent addresses global
Engineers who wish to be part of the
support and expertise.
engineering needs," said SWE
executive director and CEO, Betty
Shanahan, CAE, F.SWE. "The Society
of Women Engineers is honored to
join the initiative."
Pat Natale, P.E., CAE, F.ASCE,
F.ASAE, executive director of the
American Society of Civil Engineers,
which has also joined the initiative,
said the ASCE is spreading the
word about E4C because it presents
opportunities to allow students
and engineers to do their jobs even
better than they do now. "Engineers
don't just build a facility. They need
to engage with communities," said
Natale. "By involving engineers
in these projects globally, they'll
end up being better in their work
domestically. »
Natale said the
stories conveyed
via the Engineering
for Change website
can create dynamic
change. "People will
see solutions that
work and those that don't," he said.
"They'll gain deeper understandings
of cultural issues so that they come up
with solutions to problems that they
may not have understood."
Natale also appreciates that
engineers who wish to be part of the
effort but cannot travel may still offer

12 SWE· WINTER 2012