L'Oreal Fellowship Presented to Ugrina

Sandra Ugrina, Ph.D. '07, aerospace engineering (AE), an AE research associate and resident at the National Institute of Aerospace at Langley, Va., has been awarded a L'Oreal USA for Women in Science Fellowship.

From a competitive pool of 200 candidates, a jury composed of eight eminent scientists and former L'OREAL-UNESCO for Women in Science Laureates and presided over by Ralph Cicerone, president of the National Academy of Sciences, selected five post doctorate fellows from various institutions across the country. Each fellow was awarded a $40,000 grant over a period of 12 months to advance and expand their independent research interests with applications critical in today’s society.

The L'Oreal USA Fellowship for Women in Science is a national awards program designed to recognize and encourage exceptional female researchers to serve as role models for younger generations and to raise the awareness of the role and importance of women in scientific research.

Ugrina intends to use the fellowship to continue her research in active flow control. The fellowship will help her investigate a different aspect of the problem--one focused on laminar flow control. Proposed research includes a design of a distributed parameter control system that would actively extract energy from the boundary layer disturbances.

Ugrina received her doctoral degree in aerospace engineering in 2007 under the mentorship of Alison Flatau. She is currently employed at the National Institute of Aerospace, mentored by James Hubbard Jr. As a result of the organized events, schedule permitting, she hopes to engage more actively in the L'Oreal for Girls in Science initiative and the AAAS conferences.

Published June 13, 2008