Rachel Muigai, Cape Town, South Africa

Rachel Muigai

Rachel Muigai, civil engineering researcher at UCT’s Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment (EBE) is the recipient of a R300 000 scholarship from the Cement and Concrete Institute.

The institute’s Sustainable Concrete Research Fellowship for 2008 was awarded to Muigai for her PhD proposal on research into the contribution of recycled materials on the environmental performance of concrete.

Muigai explains that concrete rubble from demolitions can be used as the aggregate in new concrete mixtures. Concrete consists of combinations of cement, aggregates (coarse and fine) and water.

Born in Nairobi, Kenya, Muigai graduated from the University of Nairobi’s Department of Civil Engineering before coming to UCT for its programmes on concrete durability. She earned her master’s with her thesis, titled Probabilistic Modelling for Durability Design of Reinforced Concrete Structures in 2008.

“This fellowship will definitely assist me in achieving my career goals,” says Muigai. “When I’ve completed my PhD I’d like to use my experience in concrete sustainability in a research institution.”

The fellowship, awarded to Muigai to celebrate 70 years of operation in South Africa, is the third to be awarded by the institute. The first was for an investigation of shrinking aggregates in the 1960s, and the other for research into durability in 1989. Both Fellowships resulted in the generation of substantial new knowledge and helped solve practical problems in the concrete industry by producing high-level solutions.

- Author: Chris McEvoy

Source: University of Cape Town

Moyez Gulamhussein Vassanji, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

 

Moyez Gulamhussein Vassanji was born in Nairobi, Kenya and raised in Tanzania. He won a scholarship to MIT while studying at the University of Nairobi and went on to specialize in theoretical nuclear physics. From 1978-1980 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Atomic Energy of Canada, and from 1980 to 1989 he was a research associate at the University of Toronto. In 1981, Vassanji and his wife, Nurjehan Aziz, founded the Toronto South Asian Review, later renamed The Toronto Review of Contemporary Writing Abroad. He published his first novel, The Gunny Sack, in 1989 and hasn’t stopped writing since. His other novels include The Assassin’s Song, and his awards include the Giller Prize, twice; the Harbourfront Festival Prize; the Commonwealth First Book Prize (Africa); Bressani Prize. Order of Canada.

To learn more about his articles and him, visit his website.

Shamim Okolloh, Atlanta, Georgia

What do you get when you mix an overacheiever with an incredible brain, good looks, and great ambition? You get Shamim Okolloh. She is a student at Spelman who has already achieved a lot. An Environmental Science major, she has interned with the EPA, UNEP, and been featured in Glamor magazine as one of the top ten college women in 2003. She has made an impact at Spelman, chairing several committees. To read more about this phenomenal woman, visit this page.