No fewer than three female doctoral researchers from the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering received the Amelia Earhart Fellowship Award at a ceremony on 18 September. Martina Baggio, Ariane Exle, and Karin Schlottke came out on top in a worldwide competition for one of a total of 35 scholarships and, in addition to the recognition of their scientific work, were delighted to receive the prize money of USD 10,000 each.
The Amelia Earhart Fellowship is awarded annually by Zonta International, a global association of women professionals. With the award, Zonta honors young female scientists who, like Amelia Earhart, have made pioneering achievements in aerospace engineering. In Stuttgart, the prizes were presented by Doris Brummer, President of the Union of German Zonta Clubs, after a video greeting from Susanne von Bassewitz, President of ZONTA International until 2020. The laudations for the award winners were given by Professor Bernhard Weigand and Professor Sabine Klinkner, who supervise the doctoral degree studies.
Research on droplet impact, cosmic dust, and droplet evaporation
Martina Baggio from the Institute of Aerospace Thermodynamics (ITLR) is investigating droplet impact on hydrophobic surfaces using “direct numerical simulations” as part of her dissertation. If, for example, an aircraft wing is coated with such a superhydrophobic material, the formation of ice on the wing can be reduced. She tells us more about her research in an interview with the University of Stuttgart.
Ariane Exle is doing her doctorate at the Institute of Space Systems, Department of Satellite Technology, in the field of space robotics. She is working on a scientific instrument for measurements on cosmic dust, which will be launched to the asteroid Phaethon in 2022. She tells us more about her research and her connection to Amelia Earhart in an interview with the University of Stuttgart.
The doctoral thesis of Karin Schlottke, also from ITLR, deals with droplet evaporation as an elementary procedure in a combustion process. Since combustion processes play a key role in numerous technical applications, research is being conducted to optimize them. Ms. Schlottke also applied to become the first German female astronaut and made it into the top 30 out of more than 400 aspirants. Besides all this she gave birth to a child in spring 2020.
About the Amelia Earhart Fellowship Award
The Amelia Earhart Fellowship Award was established in 1938 in honor of the pilot Amelia Earhart, who in 1932 became the first woman to cross the Atlantic in a 20-hour solo flight. She used the popularity that she had gained through her flying records to campaign for women’s rights. She helped women to gain admission to technical universities and supported them in choosing technical professions. During her attempt to fly around the earth along the equator, Amelia Earhart went missing in 1937. The Amelia Earhart Fellowship Award is intended to support the research work of young female scientists and to keep them motivated on their further career path. To date, 1,209 women from 73 countries have received the award.
Zonta International is a global association of women professionals in positions of responsibility. As an NGO at the United Nations, as well as in the individual local clubs, its goal is to improve the status of women in legal, political, economic, social, and professional terms. There are over 1,200 clubs with more than 30,000 members in 63 countries worldwide.
