Doctoral Researcher wins prestigious Fellowship

Angeliki Laskari is the fourth doctoral researcher from the Faculty of Engineering and Environment to be awarded the Amelia Earhart Fellowship.

This prestigious Fellowship, offered by Zonta International , is awarded annually to 35 women who show superior academic achievements in subjects related to aerospace disciplines around the world.

Angeliki, from the Aerodynamics and Flight Mechanics Group , was happy and surprised to be included in this year’s awardees. She joins a list of her peers who have also been awarded the US $10,000 fellowship over the last four years – Francesca Letizia (awarded 2013, from the Astronautics Group ) and Eda Dogan & Natalia Ortiz Gómez (awarded 2015, also from Aerodynamics and Flight Mechanics Group).

On her success, Angeliki said: ‘Both my supervisors recommended I apply. Another student in our group, Eda, had been recognised the previous year and I thought why not? I was away in Germany when I found out that I had got the Fellowship, and was really pleased.’

Angeliki went on to say that she will be using the fellowship to support the final year of her PhD.

‘As a PhD student, there aren’t too many financial resources available besides earning income through demonstrating, so this Fellowship will be very helpful in supporting my final year.’

The Fellowship is awarded based on a number of factors, including record of education, novelty of research, references and what the Fellowship will be put towards.

Discussing the number of female researchers from the same faculty to be awarded the Fellowship, previous winner Francesca Letizia said: ‘We have a very positive environment in our group at the University and our supervisors really encourage getting women into our sector.

We are all very supportive of each other and it is great to be recognised at an international level and for research within our field. We can only hope that this will continue to encourage future researchers into Aerospace-based subjects at the University.

It really is remarkable to have four recipients of the Fellowship at the University, especially all at the same time.’

Angeliki is currently in her third year of candidature and is supervised by Professor Bharathram Ganapathisubramani , Head of Aerodynamics and Flight Mechanics Group, and Dr Roeland De Kat , Levelhulme Early Career Fellow.

Congratulations to Angeliki and all past University of Southampton awardees on this fantastic achievement.