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Biography
Prof Irvy (Igle) Gledhill is Honorary Adjunct Professor of Flow Physics at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. She was born in Makhanda in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa. She completed her BSc with distinction in physics in 1976, followed by an Honours degree in Physics, at Rhodes University. She completed her PhD in Plasma Physics at the University of Natal, Durban, South Africa (now UKZN). She did her post-doctoral work at the University of California, Los Angeles, on magnetic confinement and plasma simulation, and at Stanford on Space Shuttle physics. She was awarded a D.Sc. (honoris causa) by Rhodes University in 2024 for her “long and distinguished contribution to research in physics, national and international leadership in physics, and human capital development, particularly on women in physics.”
For 30 years, she specialised in transonic computational fluid dynamics at the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. She also contributed as an applied computational physicist within multidisciplinary collaborations including rational drug design, ocean engineering, and coal mine safety.
She is a Past President of the South African Institute of Physics, and chaired the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) Working Group 5 on Women in Physics. She has a strong commitment to improving the work environment for all scientists, and served on the executive of the Gender Gap collaborative project funded by the International Science Council, 2017-2020. She is co-founder and Secretary of IUPAP Working Group 21, physics for climate change action and sustainable development.
She is Vice-President for International Relations and Scientific Affairs of the Network of African Science Academies, interim Vice President of the Academy of Science of South Africa, and a member of the American Physical Society Committee on International Scientific Affairs. She serves on the SA-UNESCO Science Sector Committee, and the World Cultural Council Interdisciplinary Committee.
Recently, she led the South African government Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) Expert Working Group on the science strategy for the National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences, NITheCS.
She has been elected as a Fellow of the South African Institute of Physics, and a Fellow of the American Physical Society.
Her present interest is in the novel fluid dynamics of bodies undergoing significant acceleration.
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Works (50 of 79)
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