The Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering has elected its first female Foreign Fellow. Ms Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is the founder, chairperson and managing director of Biocon Limited, an Indian company that is Asia's leading biopharmaceuticals enterprise.
She joins more than two dozen women and men with impressive track records in leadership and creating impact who have been elected Fellows.
Ms Mazumdar-Shaw, a global influencer and biotechnologist, has been named among TIME magazine's 100 most influential people in the world and is recognised as a global thought leader.
She has been appointed Knight of the National Order of the French Legion of Honour by the government of France for her outstanding contribution to the world of biosciences.
Since 2010, she has been on Forbes' list of the 100 most powerful women in the world and recently has been recognised as the only Indian on Forbes' list of World's Self-Made Women Billionaires.
Ms Mazumdar-Shaw's honour will be formally acknowledged by the Academy at its Annual Meeting in Melbourne on November 23, alongside 25 new Fellows and an Honorary Fellow.
Academy President, Professor Hugh Bradlow, welcomed their election, saying the new Fellows strengthened the Academy's aim of ensuring that Australia remained a world-leading technology economy.
"We're motivated by what's best for our common future," he said.
"And we do that by bringing together the brightest minds in technology, engineering and science to offer impartial, evidence-based, and practical advice," he added.
Ms Mazumdar-Shaw is the first woman to be elected as a Foreign Fellow in the more than 30 years that the honour has existed. The 25 new Fellows include 10 women exceeding the Academy's short-term target of electing one-third of its new Fellows from female candidates.
