STA, 11 January 2022 - Nataša Kovačević, a research project manager at Kolektor Group company, has become the Woman Engineer of the Year. The title has been awarded for the fourth year to encourage young women to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
The Woman Engineer of 2021, selected by Mediade company and IRT 3000 magazine, was declared at a hybrid event at the Presidential Palace on Tuesday.
Kovačević started her professional career as a young researcher at the Jožef Stefan Institute (IJS) and earned a PhD from the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering in the field of corrosion and passivation processes on the surfaces of metal materials.
In 2013, she started working for Kolektor, a major Slovenian supplier for global car industry giants, and soon became a project manager.
On her own initiative, she also started researching basic and applicative corrosion processes in metal and composite materials, Mediade said in a written statement.
Kovačević is also a member of the supervisory board of and a partner in the international project MAMI Magnetics and Microhydrodynamics.
She shares her know-how and experiences at lectures and workshops for talented secondary school children, and mentors doctoral candidates at Kolektor and at the IJS's international post-graduate school.
The winner was selected from a total of ten nominees as four juries had scrutinised the nominations. Woman Engineer of the Year is part of We'll Be Women and Men Engineers, a project promoting STEM among secondary school kids.
