This year’s Femtec Awards were presented on 13 September 2019 as part of the Femtec Summer Festival in the Glass House of the Arena Berlin. Every year, special leadership qualities, innovative ability and social commitment are honoured at the event. This year’s winners are Claudia Kessler, CE_O at HE Space, in the Leadership category; Nina Langen, junior professor at the Institute for Vocational Education at the TU Berlin in the Innovation category; and Jasmin Justen, student of physics at the TU Berlin and scholarship holder of the Femtec Career-Building Program for female students in STEM courses, in the Social Impact category.
For the Leadership category, the Femtec Award jury is looking for top performers who have demonstrated exceptional leadership skills or a special role model function in promoting women. An Innovation Award requires women who have the creativity and courage to make a difference. And for the Social Impact category, women who have shown social commitment in their activities or have been able to bring about social change will be awarded prizes.
In the Leadership category, Claudia Kessler impressed with her commitment to equality, diversity and interdisciplinarity in technological professions. As a manager in the aerospace industry, she promotes the career of female specialists and managers in the “Women in Aerospace Europe” network, which she founded in 2009. She is also a member of the Senate of the German Aerospace Society and the International Aeronautical Academy. Claudia Kessler’s main occupation is CEO at HE Space, a space personnel service provider. The proportion of women in the 200-strong team is 55 percent – for which she has received numerous awards, including the “Diversity Personality of the Year 2016” and the “Charter of Diversity”. One reason or the award states : “With regard to gender equality, she was the only female student of aerospace engineering at the Technical University of Munich at the time to create the initiative ‘The Astronaut’, thus ensuring the female future of German astronautics, which had previously only been manned. With her initiative, she wants to arouse and continuously promote interest in technological professions and STEM subjects.”
In the Innovation category, Nina Langen was able to assert herself. She works as a junior professor and is one of the few women at the Institute for Vocational Education and Training at the TU Berlin. The jury was impressed that she created an excellent basis in a very short time to anchor practical, entrepreneurial activities in teacher training. In addition, the jury emphasizes the creativity of Nina Langen in the orientation of her research, her courage in defining topics, and the considerable third-party funding she raises. The jurors are in agreement: “Nina Langen is a respected role model as an innovative, entrepreneurial junior professor for young scientists.”
The award in the Social Impact category went to the TU Berlin student and Femtec scholarship holder Jasmin Justen. In the reasoning, her great commitment as a tutor in the LABgirls of the TU and in the Femtec community as well as her outstanding achievements in her master’s degree are highlighted.
The jury of the Femtec Award 2019 consisted of the members of the Supervisory Board Dr. Helga Lukoschat from the EAF (Deputy Chairwoman) and Prof. Dr. Angela Ittel from the TU Berlin, the Chairwoman of the Femtec Advisory Board Elke Lücke from Porsche AG and her Deputy Chairwoman Dr. Doris Klee from RWTH Aachen University, the entire board of Femtec Alumnae, the former Femtec scholarship holder Prof. Dr. Maren Martens from HAW Landhut and four Femtec course speakers.
