Meet Katie MacCallum – NewGen Surgical Celebrates International Women’s Day & Women in Science!

Science and gender equality are both vital for sustainable development. Yet women and girls continued to be excluded from participating fully in science: less than 30% of researchers worldwide are women, according to UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Culture Organization).

The International Day of Women and Girls in Science, celebrated on February 11 and today as we celebrate March 8th International Women’s Day 2018, an occasion to recognize and to spotlight one of our young and talented engineering team members – Katie MacCallum.

Meet Katie MacCallum our Associate Design Engineer who represents the passion, intelligence and brings fresh perspective, talent and creativity to the NewGen Surgical team of engineers and management. Katie MacCallum has joined the NewGen Surgical team for the summer 2017 as an intern while working on her Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. Currently, Katie works closely with Principal Engineer, Ken Blier, and Director of Engineering and Operations, Peter Szyperski. As an Associate Design Engineer, she assists in the mechanical evaluation of new and existing products, provides support with the development of new experiments of testing product.

Today, we asked Katie what sparked her interest science and passion to pursue an engineering career:

“I always found it exciting to face and solve problems in math and science, which naturally progressed into my interest in Engineering.”

Coincidently, Katie’s favorite color is – purple. Internationally, purple is a color for symbolizing women. Historically, the combination of purple, green and white to symbolize women’s equality originated from the Women’s Social and Political Union in the U.K. in 1908. Purple signifies justice and dignity. Green symbolizes hope. White represents purity, but is no longer used due to ‘purity’ being a controversial concept.