Marisa Henry

2016 Gates Cambridge Scholar

Hometown

Sugar Land, TX

Major

Environmental & Ecological Engineering

College

The Graduate School

 

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University graduate Marisa Henry has been named a Gates Cambridge Scholar. Henry, a Canadian citizen now living in Austin, Texas, is one of 55 recipients of the scholarship from a worldwide pool of 3,730 applicants outside the U.S. and the United Kingdom.

 

At Purdue, she has been a member of a multidisciplinary team designing a community-based water system in collaboration with the village of Endallah, Tanzania, and the Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology. Last spring, Henry traveled with the team to Endallah, where she surveyed how villagers use, access, and need water as part of the project to alleviate economic water scarcity in the region.

 

Venkatesh Merwade, associate professor of civil engineering and Henry's mentor for the Tanzania project, said she has "an ability to find solutions by all means," and developed a strong leadership role during her two years on the project. This included finding funding and publishing the work of the Purdue University Global Development Team.