Cecilia Dianne (Cill) Richards is a retired Canadian and American mechanical engineer, known for her work on small-scale heat engines and on microelectromechanical systems.
[2] Richards majored in mathematics at the University of British Columbia, graduating in 1977.
[3] After graduation, she began working on solar energy with professors at the university, inspiring her interest in engineering.
[1] After postdoctoral research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Richards joined the Washington State University faculty as an assistant professor of mechanical and materials engineering in 1992.
[4] In 2022 the Henry Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California, Irvine named her to its alumni hall of fame.