Vice-President for International Relations and Scientific Affairs, NASAC

Area of Specialization: Computational Physics

Affiliation: Academy of Science of South Africa

Brief Biodata:

Irvy (Igle) Gledhill holds a BSc and BSc (Hons) from Rhodes University and a PhD in plasma physics from the University of Natal, South Africa. She worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of California, Los Angeles, on plasma physics, and at Stanford University on Space Shuttle physics.

For 30 years, she specialised in transonic computational fluid dynamics in aeronautics at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, South Africa. She also contributed as a computational physicist within groups in mining, the biosciences, road infrastructure, coastal engineering, and non-linear optics, and chaired the Strategic Research Panel of the CSIR. Her current interest is in accelerating aerodynamics, and she is currently Visiting Adjunct Professor of Flow Physics in Aeronautical Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.

In 2001, she graduated from the Executive National Security Programme at the South African Defence College. She serves on the executive of the Gender Gap project of the International Science Council and has chaired the Working Group on Women in Physics of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics. She is a council member of the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions, and is a Member of the Academy of Science of South Africa and of Sigma Xi, a Past President of the South African Institute of Physics, and a Professional Natural Scientist. She has also served on the World Cultural Council Interdisciplinary Committee.

Organization: University of the Witwatersrand