NCC's Janet Mitchell bags Composites Industry Award
October 22, 2019 - United Kingdom
The director of aerospace, defence, and space of the National Composites Centre (NCC), Janet Mitchell, will be the recipient of this year’s outstanding contribution to the Composites Industry Award, from Composites UK. NCC delivers innovation in the design and rapid manufacture of composites and facilitates their widespread industrial exploitation.
Mitchell will be honoured with this award for her work in championing diversity in engineering. She has been a huge inspiration in encouraging the next generation of composites engineers of all genders, ethnicities, and backgrounds. She herself entered her profession as the only woman on the shop floor, working her way up to leading the largest business unit at the UK’s key composites R&D facility, according to NCC.
In a career spanning four decades, Mitchell has proven that tenacity, vision, and passion teamed with expertise is the perfect combination for a leading composites engineer. Not only has she breached the ‘glass ceiling’ herself, she has also built a staircase up to the executive floor for others to use – and it’s made of composites, naturally.
She joined the industrial engineering community as a fresh-faced apprentice in the early 80s, one of just a handful of women to complete her course in mechanical engineering. Over the coming years she carved a successful career winning friends and inspiring others as she went. Her involvement in pinnacle moments in composites breakthrough is no surprise as her passion for composites and the opportunities they open is clear for all to see. Her illustrious career holds a through line of composite wing research and development including stints at BAE Systems and Airbus where she headed up the A400M wing project. Most recently, Mitchell has turned her enviable focus and energy to helping the UK cement its position as world leader in composites at the NCC; running a successful business unit and helping steer R&D policy in this exciting growth area for the UK.
“It’s so exciting to be honoured in this way and I am deeply grateful for the nomination. At this stage in my career it’s great to have the opportunity to reflect on the work I’ve been involved. Obviously at the beginning of my career I did not see myself as a trailblazer; but as I progressed it became obvious that diversity of thought, background and experience makes a real difference to the profession. Championing that cause has been no hardship – and seeing the results of some of the initiatives I set up has been a fulfilment in itself,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell will be honoured with this award for her work in championing diversity in engineering. She has been a huge inspiration in encouraging the next generation of composites engineers of all genders, ethnicities, and backgrounds. She herself entered her profession as the only woman on the shop floor, working her way up to leading the largest business unit at the UK’s key composites R&D facility, according to NCC.
In a career spanning four decades, Mitchell has proven that tenacity, vision, and passion teamed with expertise is the perfect combination for a leading composites engineer. Not only has she breached the ‘glass ceiling’ herself, she has also built a staircase up to the executive floor for others to use – and it’s made of composites, naturally.
She joined the industrial engineering community as a fresh-faced apprentice in the early 80s, one of just a handful of women to complete her course in mechanical engineering. Over the coming years she carved a successful career winning friends and inspiring others as she went. Her involvement in pinnacle moments in composites breakthrough is no surprise as her passion for composites and the opportunities they open is clear for all to see. Her illustrious career holds a through line of composite wing research and development including stints at BAE Systems and Airbus where she headed up the A400M wing project. Most recently, Mitchell has turned her enviable focus and energy to helping the UK cement its position as world leader in composites at the NCC; running a successful business unit and helping steer R&D policy in this exciting growth area for the UK.
“It’s so exciting to be honoured in this way and I am deeply grateful for the nomination. At this stage in my career it’s great to have the opportunity to reflect on the work I’ve been involved. Obviously at the beginning of my career I did not see myself as a trailblazer; but as I progressed it became obvious that diversity of thought, background and experience makes a real difference to the profession. Championing that cause has been no hardship – and seeing the results of some of the initiatives I set up has been a fulfilment in itself,” Mitchell said.