Karen Burt

Since 1999, the Women's Engineering Society have celebrated Karen Burt with a memorial award for newly chartered women in engineering, applied science or information technology. Each year the Women's Engineering Society requests one nomination from each participating Professional Engineering Institution, and from these a winner is chosen. The award recognises significant potential in engineering and it was originally set up to encourage a greater number of women to aim for, and to celebrate, the achievement of Chartered Engineer status. Winners receive £1,000, at the bequest of her father, Cyril Hilsum.

She was appointed to the London Branch Committee of the Women's Engineering Society in 1987. She was a campaigner for career breaks and gave advice to members of the Women's Engineering Society in how to manage returning to work. Burt was appointed to the Women's Engineering Society Council in 1991. She presented at the 1991 International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists. Having just accepted a faculty position at University College London, Burt suffered a fatal stroke in June 1997. aged only 42.

Burt left British Aerospace and established her own consultancy. In addition, she helped University College London establish the Centre for Advanced Instrumentation Systems. She contributed to the Women's Engineering Society, Institute of Physics and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. In 1983 and 1984 Burt presented a Faraday Lecture, Let's Build A Satellite, on behalf of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and British Aerospace.

Karen Ann Hilsum Burt (née Hilsum) CPhys MInstP (26 Nov 1954 - 20 June 1997) was a British engineer and campaigner for the recruitment and retention of women in engineering.