Young African woman wins UK Rhodes scholarship, bags PhD in Engineering at University of Oxford

A young African woman named Gladys Ngiche who won the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship has bagged her doctorate degree in Engineering at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

Gladys is a Kenyan who obtained a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya. After graduation, she received the Rhodes scholarship to continue with her postgraduate studies.

She bagged her doctorate degree in Engineering Science with a focus on Aerospace at the Uniersity of Oxford, United Kingdom. During her PhD program, she researched efficient ways of cooling jet engines.

While at Oxford, she received the Tanenbaum Fellowship award, an annual fellowship awarded to Rhodes scholars for a multifaceted program in Israel. Gladys was also a a Schmidt Science Fellow while at the same time being a Rhodes Scholar.

Gladys completed her postdoctoral research at Space Enabled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under a Schmidt Science Fellowship and has since then received notable awards. She was credited with a patent in collaboration with Rolls-Royce Plc in 2018.

Her research work has been featured on BBC Science the Oxford Science Blog and Medium. Gladys has also won an award as a Skoll World Forum Fellow for her impact in Kenya on empowering girls and women.

She received the Young Engineer Turbo Expo Participation Award from the ASME IGTI at the 2018 Annual American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Conference. In 2018, Gladys was ranked among the Top 40 Under 40 Women in Kenya by Business Daily Africa.

Gladys is also the founder of Geen Foundation, an organization that aims at helping students and young professionals unleash their full potential, and Co-Founder of Sqdgo.com.