Elizabeth Keller Bierman Awarded Society of Women Engineers' 2006 Distinguished New Engineer Award.

Elizabeth Keller Bierman is recognized at SWE's annual conference for demonstrating outstanding technical performance in the first 10 years of her engineering career

CHICAGO -- The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) today announced Elizabeth Keller Bierman a recipient of SWE's 2006 Distinguished New Engineer Award. Bierman is being recognized for career accomplishments in the field of aerospace engineering, ongoing dedication to the mission of the Society of Women Engineers, and local, regional, and national SWE leadership.

Elizabeth Keller Bierman is product support engineer for Honeywell International Inc. In this role, Bierman is responsible for the overall technical support for assigned aviation products. She has close interface with the aircraft manufacturers, airline customers, supplier's and Honeywell's support network. She is also responsible for all inertial navigation products for AirbusCoone of the largest aircraft manufacturers in the world. She currently works on Airbus' newest aircraft, the A380, which the largest aircraft ever built. Bierman is also working on the Micro Inertial Reference Unit to be used on the new Boeing 787.

"As a product support engineer, Elizabeth has merged technical and interpersonal skills to ensure successful customer experiences with her aviation products," says Jude Garzolini, president of the Society of Women Engineers. "She brings many of these same skills to local and national leadership roles in SWE to the benefit of current and future generations of women engineers."

Prior to Honeywell, Bierman worked for Rockwell Collins where she served in various roles including human resources, project manager on the B1-B training simulator, and as a systems engineer on a wide variety of military aircraft in the integrated applications group under the Government Systems division.

Bierman has also been very an active member within SWE. Due to her professional relocations, Bierman has been involved with many sections during her membership. While living in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Bierman was involved with the chartering of the East Central Iowa section. After she moved to the Boston area, Bierman quickly became involved with the Boston section where she served on the council of representatives. She then relocated to the Minnesota and began working with the SWE-MN section, where she was a member of the professional development committee, again served on the council of representatives and served as vice president. She currently serves as president of the section. She is involved at the Regional level as Region H leadership coach. She is also involved at the national level as a member of the program development grant committee and the career guidance awards chair.

"Above Elizabeth's excellent technical abilities, her communication, professionalism, maturity, teamwork, and positive approach are what I admire and appreciate the most," says S. Robert Smith, customer support manager for Honeywell. "The overall reactive nature of the customer support engineer position can be very demanding, especially when the symptoms expressed by the customer are not easily translated into possible causes for the customer's experience. Elizabeth is excellent representing our company in front of customers as well as carrying the customer's concern effectively within our company to get them a response."

Bierman received her B.S. degree in aerospace engineering, with a minor in political science from Iowa State University, an M.B.A. degree from Bentley College in Boston, and a Masters degree in systems engineering from Iowa State University.

The Distinguished New Engineer Award honors women engineers who have been actively engaged in engineering, demonstrated outstanding technical performance, and have had no more than 10 years of cumulative engineering experience as of December 31 of the past year. Each advanced engineering degree obtained on a full-time basis counts as one year of experience.

The 2006 Distinguished New Engineers Award will be formally presented Friday night, October 13 at the Society of Women Engineers' National Conference Achievement Award Banquet in Kansas City, Mo. The National Conference, "Women Blazing Technology Trails," is being held at the Kansas City Convention Center in Kansas City, Mo. October 12-14. The more than 4,000 attendees include professionals from every discipline of the engineering profession and a large number of engineering students and educators. The 2007 Conference is scheduled for October 25-27 in Nashville, Tenn.

About SWE

The Society of Women Engineers (SWE), founded in 1950, is a not-for-profit educational and service organization. SWE is the driving force that establishes engineering as a highly desirable career aspiration for women. SWE empowers women to succeed and advance in those aspirations and be recognized for their life-changing contributions and achievements as engineers and leaders. For more information about the Society please visit www.swe.org or call [phone].