Naval engineer Brandice Weathers, Ph.D., is part of a select group of professionals who will receive the Professional Achievement Award at the 2022 BEYA STEM Conference. The award is presented to a mid-career professional who has made discoveries or important advances in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and is acknowledged as a leader of large STEM initiatives.

Dr. Weathers is a material research engineer. She is currently serving as the corrosion and cathodic protection system integration team lead for the next class of attack submarines. During her work on U.S. Navy platforms and systems, she identified an environmental cracking risk and brought about a solution through a collaboration of the program office and the technical warrant holder.

“Dr. Weathers continues to provide innovative approaches to technical challenges and her contribution to the U.S. Navy ship and submarines communities are greatly deserving of this recognition,” said Commander Eric C. Duncan of the Navy Sea Systems Command.

Maria Shaw started her engineering career as a co-op student with General Motors (GM). She published a confidential thesis resulting in a $20 million savings. She also earned an award for exceptional contributions in engineering from the truck group. While at GM, she held roles in manufacturing engineering and operations and went on to spend 10 years at GE Healthcare, delivering $31 million in savings and $250 million in revenue.

In February 2021, Maria joined Abbott as a senior director leading the program management office for rapid diagnostics. She manages a team that produces tests for Covid-19.

“Maria is driving a monumental program to dramatically increase COVID test volume in response to the Delta variant. This program is expected to garner over $1 billion in revenue and is the highest priority for the rapid diagnostics business,” said Dr. Karen Rodriguez of Abbott.

Read more about the professional achievements of the 2022 award winners:

Roderick K. Jackson, Ph.D., distinguished member research staff, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Philip June, vice president of safety and quality, Boeing Global Services, The Boeing Company