Wendy Okolo Awale is the first Black woman in the history of the University of Texas at Arlington to get a doctoral degree in the field of aerospace engineering. Let’s read her full biography and net worth below.

Wendy Okolo Biography

At the NASA Ames Research Center, Wendy A. Okolo works as an aeronautical research engineer in the Intelligent Systems Division. She is of Nigerian and American descent, but fully Nigerian by biographical parents.

She is the first Black woman in the history of the University of Texas at Arlington to get a doctoral degree in the field of aerospace engineering. In addition to that, she is the manager of the Special Emphasis Programs for Women at Ames.

The Nigerian in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) celebrated Dr. Wendy Okolo, who is the first black woman to get a PhD in Aerospace Engineering. The woman, who was born in Nigeria, got her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Arlington. ((nigeriagalleria.com))

Early Career

Okolo began her professional life as a student intern at Lockheed Martin, where she assisted with the development of the Orion spacecraft for NASA. She and other Nigerians are doing the country proud by contributing to the international organizations in which they are involved.

She completed an internship with the Requirements Management Office in the Systems Engineering department and with the Hatch Mechanisms team in the Mechanical Engineering department over the course of two summers.

Okolo later worked in the Control Design & Analysis Branch of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), which is located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, while he was a graduate student.

Okolo is currently working for the Intelligent Systems Division of NASA Ames as a Sub-Project Manager. Her role at the Discovery and Systems Health Technology Research Group is that of a Research Engineer (DaSH).

Education Background

Okolo attended Queen’s College, an all-girls school in Lagos, Nigeria, for her secondary education. In 2010, she earned a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA).

At the age of 26, Okolo became the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering at UTA. Atilla Dogan oversaw her doctoral studies. During her undergraduate studies, Okolo was president of the university’s Society of Women Engineers.

Age – Date of Birth

The first black woman from Nigeria-America aerospace research engineer in the Intelligent Systems Division at NASA Ames Research Center was born in the year 1986 in Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria. She is currently at the age of 36 years old.

Is Wendy Okolo Married – Husband

We really do not have any information about her husband or she getting married any time soon, but we promise to update this page as soon as we get any information about her marital status.

Family – Parents

Let’s talk about her siblings, father, mother and relatives; Dr. Okolo started her career at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a U.S. government agency in charge of the civilian space program as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. She was born into a family of six children.

Wendy Okolo says that her sisters taught her about science through the things they did every day. They are her heroes, she says. Nigerians are proud of the genius of Dr. Wendy Okolo, who is one of their own.

Research Work

In the Computer-Aided Control Systems Design Laboratory, she worked on her dissertation, which was about how planes can fly together to save fuel. In particular, she used alternative trimming mechanisms like internal fuel transfer.

Including differential thrusting to trim induced aerodynamic moments on the trail aircraft, reduce the need for control effector deflections that cause drag, and increase the benefits of flying in formation.

This research was paid for by the AFRL, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the Texas Space Grant Consortium (TSGC), Zonta International, and the University of Texas at Arlington.

Awards & Recognitions

Year	Awards
2012	Amelia Earhart Fellowship
2012	DoD National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship
2012, 2013	Texas Space Grant Consortium (TSGC) Fellowship
2013	AIAA John Leland Atwood Graduate Award
??	Black Engineer of the Year Award (BEYA) for The Most Promising Engineer in the United States government.
2019	Women in Aerospace Award for Initiative, Inspiration, & Impact
2019	NASA Ames Early Career Researcher Award
2019	University of Texas at Arlington Distinguished Recent Graduate Award
2020	NASA Ames Award for Researcher