Tanzanian wins coveted engineer’s award in US

George Jonas, a Tanzanian working with Boeing

What you need to know:

George Jonas, a Tanzanian working with Boeing, received the Black Engineer of the Year Awards (Beya) at the weekend.

He received the Walt W Braithwaite Legacy Award during a conference that took place at the weekend.

Dar es Salaam. George Jonas, a Tanzanian working with Boeing, received the Black Engineer of the Year Awards (Beya) gong at the weekend.

He won the Walt W Braithwaite Legacy Award during a conference

Mr Jonas is currently working with the Boeing Company’s commercial airplanes as 777X Airplane safety engineer.

Beya is one of the largest gatherings in the US dedicated to increasing diversity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Heis among the 41 people from around the world to have received different Beya awards in different categories.

He joins othersfrom Boeing namely Mr Raenaurd Turpin, the company chief engineer who also scooped the Outstanding Technical Contribution in industry award and Mrs Tiera Fletcher, the company’s Space Launch System Structural Design engineer, who was he Most promising Engineer.

Other employees of the company, who will be awarded are Human resource director at Boeing South Carolina Akeem Iman-Jones for Dave Barclay Affirmative Action Award and Leo Brooks Jr, the company’s Vice President, Defence, Space, Security and government operations, who  scooped the Career Achievement in Industry Award.

Mr Jonas was first known by Tanzanians when Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) received the first Boeing 787-800 Dreamliner in July, last year.

Mr Jonas, 41 years, who hails from Mbeya Region, was one of the technical members of staff for Boeing, who took part in the manufacturing of the 262-seater plane.

Mr Jones joined Boeing in 2011 and was part of the company’s team that built Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner.

Before joining Boeing, he was an employee at Bombardier, where he was recognised for his outstanding contribution to the Bombardier Learjet Strategic Transformation Project in 2009.