Page 5 - Microsoft Word - Women in Engineering Booklet

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Gaja Perchiazzi

Title: Consultant Engineer
Location: Bristol Office

Gaja joined NRP's Transport Team in February 2017 a few months after moving to
Bristol from Taranto, her birthplace in southern Italy.

She's always been curious about the most disparate subjects, with a particular
interest in science and engineering. With her father a civil engineer and her a
brother architect, she feels that a degree in engineering was almost a natural
consequence of being brought up in such an environment, even though she admits
that both her and her family have a keen interest in a various range of subjects that
transcend the mere technical knowledge of engineering or related sciences. Being
an engineer has been both a choice dictated by circumstances and one inspired
from her dad's words (customising a quote from the Italian architect Ernesto Nathan
Rogers): "Be an engineer, and you will be able to design from a spoon to a town".
To Gaja, being an engineer means growing an "elastic and permeable mind". Who
else than women are better at this?

On International Women’s Day, Gaja met her colleague Aga at the Furthering
Female Leadership event in London, hosted by APM. The impression Gaja received
was very positive and made her think how great it is that women can assume
leadership roles and become an example for other women that would like to
progress further in their careers. It may still be difficult to be a woman in a male
dominated environment, even more challenging if she comes from a different
cultural/social background, but hopefully the future will be a little bit “pinker”.

“Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without
claiming it, she stands up for all women.” - Maya Angelou