Announcement of MSc and PhD fellowship recipients

The evaluation of the applications received from former UNU Fellows for UNU-GTP Fellowships for MSc and PhD studies in Iceland has now been carried out. There were 12 valid applications for MSc studies and 5 for the PhD studies, which shows good interest for geothermal studies in Iceland.

The number of Fellowships that the UNU-GTP could award this year was 5 full MSc Fellowships and 1 PhD Fellowship.

The decision on whom to award the MSc and PhD Fellowships was, as always, a tough one with many good applications sent in. The final results were influenced by various factors. The main selection criteria are based on the individual’s performance during their 6 month training in Iceland (i.e. overall progress, final report, supervisor’s recommendation etc.); their general academic career, the needs for higher training in the home country; availability in the chosen field of study at UI or RU; and gender balance.

The selected ones, who have been offered a UNU-GTP fellowship to start their studies in late July/August 2019 are the following:

MSc Fellowship:
Birhan Abera Kebede, Ethiopia, in Geothermal Geology (UI)
Yerko Figueroa Penarrieta, Bolivia, in Chemistry of Thermal Fluids (UI)
John Joseph Lubuva, Tanzania, Sustainable Energy Engineering (RU)
Patrick Muanza Kant, D.R. Congo, in Geothermal Geology (UI)
Idil Souleiman Bouraleh, Djibouti, Chemistry of Thermal Fluids (UI)

PhD Fellowship:
Makoye Mabula Didas, Tanzania, in Geophysical Exploration (UI)

Finally, we would like to draw attention to the fact that each application is valid for two consecutive years, i.e. the applications submitted for 2019 will also be considered in 2020, while applications submitted in 2018 are no longer valid, and need to be renewed if they are to be reconsidered.  We would also like to encourage those who submitted an application for 2019, but are not intending to pursue a fellowship for 2020, to let us know in good time.