Dr Wendy Okolo, the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, wearing a blue NASA bomber jacket and smiling against a dark background. Photo Credit: Wendy Okolo/Instagram
Did you know that at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, there is a Nigerian woman whose work is literally making things fly safer and more efficiently? Her name is Dr Wendy Okolo, and if you have not heard of her yet, today is a very good day to change that.
Dr Okolo’s journey to NASA was built on a foundation of exceptional academic and professional experience. Before joining NASA, she worked at the US Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where she implemented unconventional control mechanisms for aircraft formation flight that contributed to real fuel savings, later validated through actual US Air Force flight tests. She also worked at Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs, better known as Skunkworks, where she implemented performance-optimising controls for the F-35C aircraft for the US Naval Air Systems Command. As an undergraduate, she interned at Lockheed Martin on the Orion spacecraft, NASA’s crew exploration vehicle designed to take humans beyond low earth orbit. She was not dabbling. She was building a body of work from very early on.
And through all of it, her roots have remained firmly Nigerian. Born and raised in Lagos, she attended St Mary’s Primary School and Queen’s College, one of Nigeria’s most respected all-girls secondary schools, before heading to the United States to pursue aerospace engineering. She credits her sisters, who taught her the sciences through their everyday realities, as her heroes. From Queen’s College Lagos to the halls of NASA, Dr Wendy Okolo has carried Nigeria with her every single step of the way.
Here are five things to know about her.
She Made History at 26
At 26 years old, Dr Okolo became the first Black woman to obtain a PhD in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington. Her graduate studies were recognised and funded by the US Department of Defense through the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship, Zonta International through the Amelia Earhart Fellowship, the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the Texas Space Grant Consortium. She also received a Resolution of Commendation from the Tarrant County Court of Texas and an award for excellence in research by Women of Colour in STEM.
Dr Wendy Okolo presenting at NASA Langley Research Center in a NASA jacket, standing in front of a screen displaying a question about novel control techniques for space vehicles. Photo Credit: Wendy Okolo/Instagram
Her Work at NASA Actually Affects All of Us
At NASA Ames Research Center, Dr Okolo is an aerospace engineering researcher in the Intelligent Systems Division, conducting research and leading cross-functional teams in aerospace vehicle controls and systems health monitoring. She was also the controls lead on a NASA early career team that won 2.5 million dollars to develop innovative techniques to guide and control an unconventional spacecraft, and she holds a US patent in aerospace vehicle flight path control. In simpler terms, her work contributes to making air travel and space exploration safer and smarter for everyone on the planet. Every time you board a flight, the science she works on is somewhere in that story.
The Awards Keep Coming
At NASA, Dr Okolo has been honoured with the NASA Exceptional Technology Achievement Medal, the NASA Ames Award for Researcher and Scientist, and the NASA Ames Early Career Researcher Award, becoming the first woman ever to receive that last one. Outside of NASA, she is also the recipient of the UT Arlington Distinguished Recent Graduate Award, the Women in Aerospace Award for Initiative, Inspiration and Impact, and the Black Engineer of the Year Award for Most Promising Engineer in the US Government.
Dr Wendy Okolo smiling and holding her first patent certificate at the NASA Ames Technology Transfer award ceremony, wearing a teal suit and white trainers. Photo Credit: Wendy Okolo/Instagram
She Is Using Her Platform to Bring Others Along
Dr Okolo served as the NASA Ames Special Emphasis Programs Manager for women, working to ensure the recruitment, retention and promotion of women at the institution. Her initiatives included creating nursing rooms for mothers returning to work and analysing job language in position descriptions to remove gendered language biases. That work earned her an Honour Award from NASA Ames Research Center for her foundational, data-driven commitment to fairness and inclusive excellence.
She Wrote a Book and She Has a Message for Every Young Person Watching
After going viral for being a Black woman who received a PhD in aerospace engineering at 26 and works at NASA, Dr Okolo was flooded with requests for mentoring, keynotes and interviews, all asking the same question — how? That question motivated her book “Learn to Fly: On Becoming a Rocket Scientist,” which covers everything from securing scholarships and networking to time management and building a career in STEM. In 2021, she was also named one of the Most Influential People of African Descent in support of the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent. Her message, which she carries into every keynote and every panel she speaks on, is simple and worth repeating: everything is for everyone.
Dr Wendy Okolo sitting at a wooden table with stacks of her book “Learn to Fly,” wearing an orange top and smiling for the camera at a book signing event. Photo Credit: Wendy Okolo/Instagram
