Ilke Ercan and Shirley de Wit - 2024 DEWIS Award winners!

News - 20 January 2025

The selection process for the 2024 DEWIS Award has been profoundly inspiring. The incredible breadth of achievements and diversity of initiatives presented by the nominees made the decision-making process extraordinarily challenging. As role models and champions of change, they inspire us all. Their dedication reminds us of what is possible when passion meets purpose.

v.l.nr. Ilke Ercan, Lucas van Vliet en Shirley de Wit

The 2024 DEWIS Advanced Career Employee Award winner is Ilke Ercan!

Shirley de Wit, PhD student at the Faculty of EEMCS

Ilke, a transformative leader at TU Delft's Microelectronics Department, is a champion of equity, diversity and inclusion. As Chair of Electrical Engineering Education, she co-founded the IEEE Women in Engineering Affinity Group and established the Johanna Manders Makerspace, the first space at EWI named after a woman. She is committed to empowering women, non-binary and underrepresented students in STEM. Ilke's mentorship ensures student inclusion in impactful research and opportunities, fostering belonging and innovation. She exemplifies leadership by creating inclusive spaces and supporting accessibility initiatives, inspiring excellence in STEM education.

The 2024 DEWIS Early Career Employee Award winner is Shirley de Wit!

Shirley’s research focuses on gender diversity in Computer Science, exploring stereotypes, programming preferences in the Hedy language, and gender-inclusive educational materials. Shirley actively promotes gender diversity and inclusion (D&I) through initiatives such as coordinating the EEMCS Gender Diversity Working Group and organising well-attended lectures. She leads the Faculty's 'Towards Inclusive STEM Education' project and disseminates her work at conferences and workshops to promote inclusive STEM education.

Each nominee exemplifies the spirit of the DEWIS Award. Through their work they have made a profound impact on creating a more inclusive and equitable academic environment at TU Delft. We extend our deepest gratitude to all the nominees for their contributions.

For the 2024 Advanced Career Employee Award, we were privileged to evaluate proposals from four individual candidates and two teams.

For the 2024 Early Career Employee Award, we were privileged to evaluate proposals from three individual candidates.