Amelia Dos Santos receiving her Award from HRH The Princess Royal, with Master Engineer Andrew McNaughton, at the Engineers Trust Awards Dinner on 9 June 2026

Winner 2026 (Medal & £2500 Prize) – Amelia Dos Santos

As one of the top performers in her cohort, Amelia Dos Santos is on track to graduate with a strong First Class MEng in Civil Engineering. She combines technical excellence with sound engineering judgement and a sophisticated understanding of the business, environmental and societal contexts in which modern infrastructure is conceived and delivered. Her sustained leadership and service to the University of Surrey led to her nomination for this Award.

Amelia is an exceptionally strong candidate for the Cadzow Smith Engineering Award, having demonstrated a clear passion for the profession through both her interview and written submission. Her industry experience with Waterman Group has already contributed meaningfully to major schemes, including the creation of a temporary rooftop beach event space in Croydon, work on Tower Bridge, and involvement in identifying engineering solutions to support the rapid rebuild of Ukraine. These experiences reflect both her versatility and her commitment to engineering with purpose. Her technical innovation in sustainable engineering is particularly noteworthy. In her third year, Amelia developed an easy-to-use computational tool for designing compression only funicular slabs, aimed at reducing material use and embodied carbon in concrete structures. This award-winning project has been recognised for its contribution to sustainable engineering and its relevance to both academia and industry, demonstrating her ability to translate advanced structural concepts into practical, impactful tools.

Amelia’s ability to balance academic distinction, industry impact, and community engagement underscores her significant promise as a future leader of the profession. She exemplifies the qualities this honour seeks to uphold clarity of purpose, professional awareness, and a commitment to engineering for the public good. In acknowledging her achievements, we recognise not only her present excellence but her future potential. Amelia Dos Santos stands out as a young engineer of exceptional capability, integrity, and ambition, an individual who will undoubtedly make a lasting contribution to the engineering profession.

The Cadzow Smith Engineering Award, established in 1996, was endowed by Eastern Group PLC (later UK Power Networks and now Engie) in recognition of the distinguished contribution to engineering made by its former Chairman, the late Dr James C. Smith CBE FREng FRSE, a Past Master Engineer. The Award is open to students enrolled in the final year of an accredited undergraduate engineering degree at one of eleven universities within the Greater London Area. The purpose of the Award is to identify, acknowledge and encourage emerging leadership within the engineering profession. In addition to achieving a high standard of academic performance, recipients are expected to demonstrate self-confidence, professional awareness, leadership capability and sound judgement, reflecting the values exemplified by Dr Smith throughout his career.

The Worshipful Company of Engineers Charitable Trust (the Engineers Trust) promotes the contributions of engineers to benefit society, education and research, and the relief of hardship and poverty.

Award photo courtesy of Mark Witter Photography