Wendy Okolo, is one of the first Women of African roots to bag a doctorate — not honorary — degree in aerospace engineering also known as rocket science, anywhere on the planet.
At only 26years old, Wendy Okolo made history when she became the first Black woman to earn a doctorate in aerospace engineering from The University of Texas at Arlington. Dr. Okolo’s groundbreaking achievement is even more impressive when one considers the significant obstacles she had to overcome to pursue her dream of becoming an engineer.
Dr. Okolo excelled in her studies and was awarded a full scholarship to attend college in the United States. She went on to achieve her goals by obtaining a B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in aerospace engineering in 2010 and 2015 respectively. In doing so, she has inspired other young women to pursue their dreams, regardless of the odds. Dr. Okolo is truly a trailblazer.
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She worked with the team that flew the world fastest manned aircraft, which flew from coast to coast in 67 minutes — this normally takes over five hours for some of the fastest jets around. Now, Okolo is an aerospace research engineer at the Ames Research Center, a major National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), research centre in California’s Silicon Valley. In 2019, she won the BEYA Global Competitiveness Conference award for the most promising engineer in the United States government.
She encourages young girls to pursue their dreams in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Wendy Okolo Ph.D. is a special emphasis programs manager in the Intelligent Systems Division of NASA’s Ames Research Center. In this role, she is responsible for a $2.5 million-dollar project called the STMD-ECI project. The goal of the project is to develop new technologies that can be used to improve space exploration missions. As part of the project, wendy and her team are working on developing new ways to navigate and control robotic spacecraft.
They are also working on ways to improve communication between humans and robots, as well as developing new methods for storing and processing data. Wendy is passionate about her work and is excited to see the results of the STMD-ECI project. She is confident that the project will have a positive impact on space exploration missions and help to make them more successful.
