Mary O' Donnell
Aeronautical Engineer & I Wish Alumna,
Mary attended the I Wish Event in Cork back in 2017 with her secondary school, Loreto Fermoy. At that time, she wasn’t sure what career path to take, and had always considered a route in business. However, seeing the amazing opportunities available to those pursuing STEM and hearing about the lives of the fantastic speakers began planting seeds in her mind. From that event, she chose higher level Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Applied Maths for her Leaving Cert. Then a summer spent working with NASA on the United Space School program changed the trajectory of what Mary O’Donnell thought was possible as a career. Through her Masters in Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Limerick, Mary discovered many avenues of what Aerospace can do - Chairperson of the Astronomy Society, Flight Deck Engineer at Boeing, Seattle - and landed firmly on the ground, with bicycles, as the youngest, and only Irish engineer on the US Bike Company - TREK Bicycles, where she is an aerodynamics engineer on the TREK Performance Research Team. Mary uses her platform to leverage her niche interests and passions, as a female engineer and national champion long distance triathlete, to promote the advocacy of women in these spaces through WiSTEM and WiSport advocacy. She is determined and ambitious in the eye of a very male dominated sport and career, but has never let that stop her in achieving enormous goals, all while encouraging and supporting those looking to take the same leap.