Ramanujam Receives 2019 Social Impact Abie Award

6/19 Pratt School of Engineering

Award recognizes a woman whose work is making a positive impact on women, technology and society, and who has developed technology that caused social change

Ramanujam Receives 2019 Social Impact Abie Award

Nimmi Ramanujam, the Robert W. Carr, Jr., Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University, has won the 2019 Social Impact Abie Award.

Given by AnitaB.org, a nonprofit organization dedicated to connecting, inspiring and guiding women in computing and organizations that view technology innovation as a strategic imperative, the award recognizes a woman whose work is making a positive impact on women, technology and society, and who has developed technology that caused social change. 

The award is part of five given annually by AnitaB.org in the categories of Technical Leadership, Social Impact, Educational Innovation, Emerging Technologist and Student of Vision.

Nimmi Ramanujam“I’ve always believed you should harness what you have learned to empower someone else,” said Ramanujam, who is also a faculty member in the Global Health Institute and Department of Pharmacology and Cell Biology at Duke. “It’s been exciting to see the programs and technologies our team has developed over the years make a difference in the lives of women and girls worldwide.”

Ramanujam has a mission to develop technology to have wide-reaching impact in women’s health. As director of the Center for Global Women’s Health Technologies at Duke, she empowers trainees at the school and beyond to create impactful solutions to improve the lives of women and girls globally. Ramanujam’s research on women’s cancers focuses on designing innovations that enable complex services to be accessible at the primary care level for cancer prevention, and to develop tools that will make cancer treatment more effective and efficient. 

 “By recognizing the circumstances and needs of her patients, Nimmi developed technology that will literally save women’s lives and have sweeping impact on women’s reproductive health in low resource areas,” said Brenda Darden Wilkerson, president and CEO of AnitaB.org. “We are delighted to recognize her life-changing influence on women’s health, her work to empower trainees in design thinking at her institution and beyond, and her creative and impactful solutions to improve the lives of women and girls globally.” 

Each year, AnitaB.org honors the accomplishments of women in computing at Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC). Each winner receives a cash prize, an opportunity to speak at GHC, and an expenses-paid trip to the celebration. The world’s largest gathering of women technologists, the 2019 Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC 19) will be held October 1-4 in Orlando, FL.