Designer of the world’s first female crash-test dummy Dr Astrid Linder is the winner of this year’s Woman of Worth award (WOW).
Linder from Sweden coordinated the EU-funded project ADSEAT that revealed female passengers were more prone to suffering whiplash-related injuries.
She worked with a team of engineers to develop a new virtual dummy model, called EvaRID, which sets a new standard for female dummies.
Prior to this the standard female dummy was 142cm and weighed just 48kg, while modern dummies are 160cm and weigh 62kg.
There were 15 nominations in the running for this year’s award, part of Women’s World Car of the Year.
Honorary President and Co-ordinator of the WOW Award, Sandy Myhre, said it was apparent when the first votes started coming in that Dr Linder was going to win.
Linder is Professor of Traffic Safety at the Swedish National Road and Transport Institute, VTI, an Adjunct Professor of Injury Prevention at Chalmers University and Adjunct Associate Professor at Monash University Accident Research Centre, Melbourne Australia.
She received her PhD in traffic safety from Chalmers where she also has a MSc in Engineering Physics.
She was awarded EU Champions of Transport Research Competition and the US Government Award for Safety Engineering Excellence, among many other awards she has received for her work.
Marta Garcia, Executive President of Women’s World Car of the Year, says she is delighted that Astrid Linder has won the WOW Award.
“She stood out in the voting and it’s an honour to have her win this award, the only award in the world voted entirely by women motoring journalists,” she said.
WOW also paid tribute to one of its founding judges, the late Sue Baker.
She is perhaps best known for her work as a presenter on BBC’s Top Gear, appearing in more than 100 episodes.
She died in November, 2022.
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