Bottomley elected as a Fellow of IEEE

Dr. Laura Bottomley, director of the Women in Engineering program and The Engineering Place in the College of Engineering at North Carolina State University, has been elected as a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Bottomley, who joined the NC State faculty in 1997, was recognized by IEEE for her leadership in increasing student interest in STEM education.

The College’s Women in Engineering effort sponsors a variety of programs for female engineering students, including social and informative events, designed to build community in the College. The Engineering Place is the College’s K-20 engineering education and outreach program that reached more than 17,000 K-12 students and teachers in 2015.

The success of both of these programs contributed to her receiving the individual President’s Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring in 2009. She was honored in 2015 along with Angelitha Daniel, director of the College’s Minority Engineering Program, by ABET with the Claire L. Felbinger Award for Diversity.

Bottomley also advises engineering students and teaches the E 101 Introduction to Engineering and Problem-Solving class for first-year engineering students.

She is a senior member of IEEE, a member of the American Society for Engineering Education, a faculty advisor for the Society of Women Engineers at NC State and a member of the National Academy of Engineering committee to examine K-12 engineering.

Bottomley was inducted into the YWCA Academy of Women for her work in empowering women and eliminating racism in 2009. She is also a Fellow of ASEE, and the IEEE honored her with the Educational Activities Board Informal Education Award.

She received a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering at Virginia Tech and a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering at NC State.