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Wakuna Galega

RELP Cohort: 2014
Civil & Environmental Engineering
School: Engineering

Growing up in Cameroon and being brought up by parents who always made sure nothing ever went to waste and almost everything be re-used as often as possible, Wakuna Galega became very accustomed to living in an environment where all resources were given so much value.

Wakuna is currently an Environmental Engineering PhD student at Stanford University working with Prof. Craig Criddle. She is also School of Engineering Deans Doctoral Diversity (3D) Fellow in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Her research focuses on the production of biodegradable plastics using microbes and methane as feedstock. She is super excited about waste resource recovery and environmentally sustainable practices, and she hope to play an influential role in this emerging field.

Among many others, Wakuna is very passionate about tutoring. She volunteers with the Science Bus after school program, where she teaches middle school students a variety of science concepts. She was program assistant for a summer undergraduate program mentoring 4 scholars during the duration of the program. She has been a teaching assistant for a few environmental engineering courses.

Wakuna graduated with a B. Eng honors degree in Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering with a years industrial placement from Swansea University in Wales UK. Her year in industry was carried out at the Murco oil refinery as process engineer with the research and development team, where she carried on several projects including: a study for a wastewater treatment plant and a new cogeneration plant design. She also obtained an MSc in Chemical Engineering from Stanford in 2013.

Wakuna is a wonderful cook who spends plenty of her spare time reading and nurturing her newfound interest for guitar. She is the oldest of 3 siblings.