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Mayowa O Owolabi

Elected: 2020

Country (Nationality)

Nigeria

Discipline

Medical & Health Sciences

Bio

Mayowa Ojo OWOLABI MBBS, MSc,  DrM, MD,  is a Professor of Neurology, and the Dean, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.  He is among the top 10 Nigerian scientists among the global top 2% scientists (2021). He has over 320 publications in peer reviewed journals including the Lancet, Nature, New England Journal of Medicine, and Science, with over 61,000 citations with a Google Scholar h-index of 66. He has won over $20 million in grant awards. He developed the seed of life model, stroke levity scale, and the stroke recovery cycle. He leads the largest study of stroke in Africa which is unravelling the genetic and environmental determinants of stroke and its risk factors in Africa. Based on his findings on the dominant modifiable risk factors for stroke in Africans, he has developed the first Afrocentric stroke riskometer model. He was the first to establish the dose-response protective effect of green leafy vegetables consumption against stroke and other cardiovascular diseases in Africans. He is the winner of the 2021 World Stroke Organization Global Award for Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Stroke Research. 

He is the pioneer Regional Vice-President, World Federation of NeuroRehabilitation (sub-Saharan Africa); African Regional Office Director, World Hypertension League, pioneer Director, Centre for Genomic and Precision Medicine, University of Ibadan; and Lead Co-chair, World Health Organization- World Stroke Organization (WSO)- Lancet Neurology Commission on Stroke. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, Royal College of Physicians, Academy of Medical Specialties, and the Nigerian Academy of Science. Prof. Owolabi is Rapporteur of the World Health Organization Technical Advisory Group on Non-Communicable Diseases (Research and Innovation). Through these activities, he is a foremost leader in the global fight against stroke and a frontline leader in the fight against hypertension, stroke and non-communicable diseases in Africa.