| Hürriyet Sırmaçelik | |
| Birth Date: | 1912 |
| Birth Place: | Damascus, Ottoman Empire |
| Death Date: | 2 January 1983 |
| Occupation: | Turkey's first woman bridge engineer |
Hürriyet Sırmaçek (1912 - 2 January 1983) was Turkey's first female bridge engineer.
Hürriyet Sırmaçek was born in Damascus in 1912 when it was part of the Ottoman Empire. She graduated from Erenköy Girls High School in 1929, then attended Istanbul Technical University, graduating in 1935 with a specialisation in road and bridge engineering.[1] [2]
She worked as a senior engineer at various levels in the Turkish State Railways (TCDD). Roles included working as a control engineer for structural calculations, including concrete, at the Sivas Lokomotif and Wagon Factory. Other work included engineering the "T" deck beam supporting the Haydarpaşa overpass at the 71km mark on the Izmir-Manisa road. She calculated the requirements for the 2x45'lik steel truss bridge, the first such edifice in Turkey.
In 1964, Sırmaçek was appointed as a General Technical Consultant in the Directorate. She later served as Deputy General Director of the TCDD.[3]
Between 1970 and 1971, she worked in the State Planning Organisation (DPT) on behalf of the Ministry of Transport, looking at transportation issues in preparation for the Southeast development plan.
Sırmaçek retired in 1971.
Hürriyet Sırmaçek died on 2 January 1983.