Elizabeth "Elsie" MacGill (ECE 2T7)

A talented engineer and trailblazer for women’s rights, Elsie MacGill spent much of her life excelling at firsts: she was the first woman to receive an Electrical Engineering degree in Canada, and the first woman in North America to earn a degree in Aeronautical Engineering (University of Michigan, 1929).

In the late 1930s, she designed and tested the Maple Leaf Trainer II, making MacGill the world’s first female aircraft designer. She later earned the nickname, “Queen of the Hurricanes” for her role in producing Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft for the Royal Air Force.

In 1947 she became the chairman of the United Nations’ Stress Analysis Committee, the first woman in the history of the organization to chair a UN committee.