Wendy A. Okolo is a Nigerian aerospace research engineer in the Intelligent Systems Division at NASA Ames Research Center. [1] She is the first Black woman to obtain a Ph.D. degree in aerospace engineering from University of Texas at Arlington. [2] She is also the Special Emphasis Programs Manager for Women at Ames. [3]
Okolo obtained her secondary education at Queen's College, an all-girls school in Lagos, Nigeria. She then received a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) in 2010. Okolo later became the first Black woman to obtain a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from UTA in 2015 at age 26. [2] Her Ph.D. studies were supervised by Atilla Dogan. [4] During Okolo's undergraduate years, she served as president of the Society of Women Engineers at the university. [5]
Okolo started her career as an undergraduate intern for Lockheed Martin, working on NASA's Orion spacecraft. [3] Over the course of two summers, she interned with the Requirements Management Office in Systems Engineering and the Hatch Mechanisms team in Mechanical Engineering. [3] As a graduate student, Okolo later worked in the Control Design & Analysis Branch of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. [6]
Okolo is a Sub-Project Manager in the Intelligent Systems Division of NASA Ames. [7] She is a research engineer in the Discovery and Systems Health Technology (DaSH) [8]
Okolo says her sisters taught her the sciences with their day-to-day realities. She describes them as her heroes. [7] [9]
Kalpana Chawla was an Indian-born American astronaut and aerospace engineer who was the first woman of Indian origin to fly to space. She first flew on Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997 as a mission specialist and primary robotic arm operator aboard STS-87. Chawla's second flight was in 2003 on STS-107, the final flight of Columbia. She was one of the seven crew members who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster when the spacecraft disintegrated during its re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere on 1 February 2003.
The University of Texas at Arlington is a public research university in Arlington, Texas. The university was founded in 1895 and was in the Texas A&M University System for several decades until joining the University of Texas System in 1965.
Robert Lee "Bobby" Satcher Jr. is an American orthopedic surgeon, chemical engineer, and former NASA astronaut. He participated in two spacewalks during STS-129, accumulating 12 hours and 19 minutes of extravehicular activity. Satcher holds two doctorates and has received numerous awards and honors as a surgeon and engineer.
Dale A. Anderson is an American aerospace engineer, computational fluid dynamicist, researcher, author and professor. He pioneered research in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with his work at Iowa State University (ISU), alongside John C. Tannehill and Richard H. Pletcher. Anderson was the Professor of Aerospace Engineering, Vice President for Research, and Dean of Graduate Studies at the University of Texas at Arlington, United States. He is best known for his overall contributions to the field of computational fluid dynamics (CFD).
Jeanette Jo Epps is an American aerospace engineer and NASA astronaut. Epps received both her M. S. and Ph.D. degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland, where she was part of the rotor-craft research group and was a NASA GSRP Fellow. She was chosen for the 20th class of NASA astronauts in 2009, graduating in 2011. Epps currently serves as a member of the ISS Operations Branch and has completed analog astronaut missions, including NEEMO 18 and CAVES 19. She is the second woman and first African-American woman to have participated in CAVES. She is currently in space for a long duration mission on the ISS, after launch in 4 March 2024, as part of the SpaceX Crew-8 crew.
The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) College of Engineering is a college of engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington in Arlington, Texas. The engineering program was established in 1959 when Arlington State College was officially given the status of a senior college. The college currently offers 11 baccalaureate, 14 master's, and nine doctoral degrees. The College of Engineering celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2009 and is the third largest engineering program in Texas.
Aprille Joy Ericsson is an American aerospace engineer currently serving as the assistant secretary of defense for science and technology. Ericsson is the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Howard University and the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in engineering at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).
Patricia S. Cowings is an aerospace psychophysiologist. She was the first American woman to be trained as a scientist astronaut by NASA; though she was an alternate for a space flight in 1979, she did not travel to space. She is most known for her studies in the physiology of astronauts in outer space, as well as helping find cures for astronaut's motion sickness.
Naira Hovakimyan is an Armenian control theorist who holds the W. Grafton and Lillian B. Wilkins professorship of the Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is the director of AVIATE Center of flying cars at UIUC, funded through a NASA University Leadership Initiative. She was the inaugural director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory during 2015–2017, associated with the Coordinated Science Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Minerva Cordero Braña is a Puerto Rican mathematician and a professor of mathematics at the University of Texas at Arlington. She is also the university's Senior Associate Dean for the College of Science, where she is responsible for the advancement of the research mission of the college. President Biden awarded her the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) on February 8, 2022.
Leroy Stevenson (Skipp) Fletcher is an American mechanical and aerospace engineer, and college dean, who served as the 104th president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1985–86, and was recipient of the 2002 ASME Medal.
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Karen Elizabeth Willcox is an aerospace engineer and computational scientist best known for her work on reduced-order modeling and the study of multi-fidelity methods. She is currently the director of the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences and professor of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at the University of Texas at Austin, Texas.
Dora Elia Musielak is an aerospace engineer, historian of mathematics, and book author. She is an expert on high-speed airbreathing jet engines, and an adjunct professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Victoria Chibuogu Nneji is a Nigerian-born American computer scientist, design and innovation strategist, and a lecturing fellow, known for her research on robotics, automation, human-centered design, and autonomous transportation.
Ying Chu Lin (Susan) Wu was a Chinese-born American businesswoman and engineer in magnetohydrodynamics, aeronautics, and aerospace engineering.
Josette Bellan is a Romanian-French-American aerospace engineer and fluid dynamicist known for her research on turbulence in high-pressure reactions, and on the interactions between fluid dynamics and thermodynamics in these reactions. She is a senior research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and visiting associate in the Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
Kristin Yvonne Rozier is an American aerospace engineer and computer scientist whose research investigates formal methods including temporal logic and model checking for the formal verification of safety-critical systems, especially those involving air transport, unmanned aerial vehicles, and air traffic control. She is Black & Veatch Associate Professor of Aerospace Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mathematics at Iowa State University, where she heads the Laboratory for Temporal Logic.
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