Over 150 of Georgia Tech’s most impactful women were immortalized at the opening of the new Pathway of Progress at the heart of campus on March 8, 2025.
Among the sea of mirror tiles that make up the installation are the stories of alumnae, students, faculty, and staff from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE).
Trailblazers like Shirley Clements Mewborn (EE ’56), one Georgia Tech’s first female graduates and industry leaders like Leslie Sibert (EE ’85) were two of the nine ECE graduates included in the inaugural class.
Denise Ellis Carson (EE ’83), Evangeline Brown Colbert (EE ’79), Cathleen Thomas Quigley (EE ’84), Evelynn M. Hammonds (EE ’76), Mary Lynn Smith (EE ’88), Rosalind Wright Picard (EE ’84), and Sybrina Y. Atwaters (EE ’94) joined them.
Maryly and Ella Wall Van Leer, whose name is on the building that houses ECE, were also honored.
Click the links below to learn more about the honorees:
Sybrina Y. Atwaters
EE 1994, M.S. HSTS 2009, Ph.D. HSTS 2014
Interdisciplinary Sociologist and Engineer
Evelynn M. Hammonds
EE 1976
Havard Professor of the History of Science and African and African American Studies
Rosalind Wright Picard
EE 1984
MIT Professor, scientist, engineer, inventor, entrepreneur, and author
Related Content
Women of ECE
In 1988, the School of Electrical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology hired Bonnie Ferri as its first female faculty member. Since that time, the School has changed its name to the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), and it has changed in many other ways over the years, including a significant increase in the number of women research and academic faculty members.
Exchanging Waves for Wavelets: Meet Leah Clark – This Californian Became the First Female Student to Attend Georgia Tech-Europe.
Leah Clark made history as the first female student to enroll at Georgia Tech’s international off-campus instructional site in Metz, France, joining Georgia Tech-Europe’s 1990 inaugural cohort.