Dr. Marlene Kanga is an outstanding leader of STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) organisations in Australia and internationally. She has been listed among the top 10 women engineers in Australia and among the Top 100 Women of Influence.

She is an Officer of the Order of Australia, a national honour, “for distinguished service to engineering, as a global leader and role model to women”

Marlene was President of the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO), 2017-2019, with 100+ national/continental professional engineering institutions as members, representing 30+ million engineers. She was the 2013 National President of Engineers Australia.

She is a non-executive director of Endeavour Energy, Airservcies Australia and Standards Australia and a past board member of Innovation Science Australia and Sydney Water Corporation.

She is Chair of the global Institution of Chemical Engineers Safety Centre, advancing complex system safety engineering, Co-Chair of Elevate, for the Department of Industry and ATSE, to increase the participation of women in STEM, a director of iOmniscient Pty Ltd which has developed advanced video analytic technologies and Rux Energy Pty Ltd which is commercialising new materials for hydrogen storage in collaboration with the University of Sydney.

A champion for diversity in STEM in Australia and internationally, as WFEO President, Dr. Kanga ensured that women gained greater visibility and participation. She collaborates with the International Science Council for a global voice for women in STEM, at the United Nations. A former Vice President of the International Network for Women Engineers and Scientists, she hosted its inaugural Asia Pacific Nation Network meeting in 2011 which has grown successfully to 17 organisations in Asia, mentoring and supporting thousands of women in STEM across the Asia-Pacific.

Marlene is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, the ASEAN Academy of Technology and Engineering an international Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a Foundation Fellow of the International Science Council, representing the world’s scientific academies and unions.

She is an Honorary Fellow of Engineers Australia, an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (UK), a fellow (honorary) of the engineering institutions of New Zealand and India and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Marlene is the recipient of numerous awards, Australian and international, including the 2018 Engineers Australia National Professional Engineer of the Year, the 2019 CHEMECA Medal for contribution to chemical engineering in Australia and New Zealand, the 2023 Ada Lovelace medal for outstanding contributions as a woman engineer and most recently the highest award from the engineering institution of the Czech Republic, the Christian Josef Willenberg Medal, in recognition of her “contribution to the development of the engineering profession on a global scale”, in Prague in October 2023.