Chinedum Peace Babalola is the first female Pharmacist Professor of the University of Ibadan, holds a B. Pharm. (1983) and a Ph.D. (1997) from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, and is the first female Pharmacist in Nigeria to be decorated with the Fellow of the Academy of Science.


For over 25 years, she has focused on pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics (PK/PD), drug analysis, pharmacogenetics and bioethics as tools to study the disposition of several antimalarials and antiinfectives in Nigerians as a guide to optimizing therapy in Blacks.

She has developed novel methods for analyzing several drugs including quinine, pyronaridine, proguanil, halofantrine, lumefantrine, artemisinine and penicillin derivatives in biological fluids contributing in the elucidation of their PK/PD. Her development of a novel HPLC method for analyzing quinine (recognized by WHO) in bio-matrices is a feat, as the method resolves quinine from its optical isomer quinidine, leading to elucidation of its pharmacokinetics in Africans by her and others, thus forming the basis of dose optimization in malaria patients.

Her ongoing formulation of quinine suppositories is a novel achievement that shows potential for therapy. Her studies on drug interactions reveal that bioavailability and bacterial activity of some antibiotics are markedly reduced (>50%) when combined with some antimalarials, calling for dosage adjustment. She and co-authors reported the first pharmacogenetic study in Nigerians (healthy and sickle cell patients) with proguanil as probe drug and observed that some Nigerians are poor metabolizers and carry mutant CYP2C19 genes. She is concluding a similar study on NATs in healthy and HIV/AIDs Nigerians.

She recently won a MacArthur grant ($1 million) to set up a Centre for Drug Discovery, Development and Production and is a Co-Principal Investigator for NIH/Forgaty D43 grant ($1.2 million) focused on interdisciplinary training of African clinical/biomedical researchers. She has over 130 publications in reputable journals, books and conference proceedings.

Prof. Robin Crewe obtained his Bachelors and Masters Degrees at the University of Natal and doctoral degree from the University of Georgia in the USA for a study of ant alarm pheromones.

He returned to the University of Natal as a lecturer of Entomology. He later moved to the University of the Witwatersrand where he established the Communication Biology Research Group (CBRG) and was its Director for a decade.


He was also appointed, successively, as head of the department of Zoology, deputy-dean of the Faculty of Science and then Dean of the Faculty of Science. He then moved to the University of Pretoria as the Dean of the Faculty of Biological and Agricultural Sciences and established the Social Insects Research Group (SIRG) within the Department of  Zoology and Entomology. He also served as Dean of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences and is now the Acting Senior Vice-principal of the University and interim chair of the National Research Foundation of South Africa.

Prof. Crewe’s research activities fall into two major areas (1) The exploration of the diversity of ponerine ant social organization, which has resulted in the publication of a number of the studies on P. berthoudi and Steblognathus. Both studies provided significant insights into both facultative polygyny (P. berthoudi) and showed that establishing dominance hierarchies has significant endocrinological effects that are associated with ovary activation.  (2) The complexity of the relationships between queens, between queens and workers, and amongst workers in honeybees. In queen-less colonies, workers have been shown to undertake pheromonal contests that result in the establishment of dominant individuals with activated ovaries who monopolize reproduction.

This results in forms of social organisation and social parasitism that were not previously thought to exist within honeybee colonies. The conventional wisdom was that queens regulated worker reproduction and that at best workers could reproduce in queen-less colonies. These findings have significant implications for commercial apiculture and the maintenance of honeybee biodiversity.

Prof Mahmoud Abdel-Aty completed his doctorate in quantum optics at Max-Plank Institute of Quantum Optics, Munch, Germany in 1999. He was promoted to associate professor at 2004 and full professor at 2009. He received the D. Sc. (Doctor of Science), in 2007.  Now he is a full professor and head of Mathematics Department at Zewail City of Science and Technology, Egypt. 

He is a general director of Natural Sciences Publishing USA and Editor-in-Chief of Applied Mathematics & Information Sciences (an International Journal), an editorial board member for several international journals. He has published over 180 papers in international refereed journals, two books and five book chapters.

He has awarded several national and international prizes, such as World Academy of Sciences (Egypt Section) prize in mathematics, state prize, Egypt, Abdel-Hameed Shoman Prize, Jourdan, Amin Lotfy Prize, Fayza Al-Khoraphy prize etc. He is especially well known for seminal contributions to theories of quantum measurement, nanomechanical modeling, highly non-classical light, practical information security, and optical implementations of quantum information tasks. His current research interests include optical and atomic implementations of quantum information tasks and protocols.

Professor Tshilidzi Marwala is a Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at the University of Johannesburg.

He was a full Professor of Electrical Engineering, the Carl and Emily Fuchs Chair of Systems and Control Engineering as well as the South Africa Chair of Systems Engineering all at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Before this, he was an executive assistant to the technical director at the South African Breweries.


He holds a BSc in Mechanical Engineering (magna cum laude) from Case Western Reserve University, a Master of Mechanical Engineering from University of Pretoria, PhD in Engineering from University of Cambridge and was a post-doctoral associate at Imperial College. His research interests include applications of computational intelligence to engineering, computer science, finance and medicine.

He has extensive track record in human capacity development having supervised 39 Masters and 10 PhD graduates to completion. Some of these students have proceeded with their doctoral and post-doctoral studies at leading universities such as Harvard, Rutgers, Purdue, Oxford, Cambridge, British Columbia and Concordia.

He has published six books (4 published by Springer-Verlag, London), over 200 papers in journals, proceedings and book chapters and holds three international patents. He is an associate editor of the International Journal of Systems Science (Taylor and Francis Publishers) and was an associate editor of the South African Journal of Science. Marwala is a registered professional engineer in South Africa, a Fellow of The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, Academy of Science of South Africa, South African Academy of Engineering and a distinguished member of the Association for Computing Machinery.

He has received more than 40 awards including the Order of Mapungubwe from the South African Government and the President’s Award from the National Research Foundation.

Prof. Raphael Munavu is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Nairobi where he has served since 1976.  He is   current Chairman of the Kenya National Academy of Sciences (KNAS) as well as   Chairman of the Council of South Eastern University College (SEUCO).

Prof. Munavu attended Kalamazoo College (B.A, 1967-1970); Wayne State University (M.Sc., 1970- 1972) and the University of Detroit (Ph.D, 1972-1975). He is a specialist in Organic, Environmental and Industrial chemistry.  Publishing over sixty refereed and commissioned papers, he has written extensively on the role of Higher Education, Chemistry, Science, Technology and Innovation in socio-economic development.

He has also undertaken consultancies on the environmental impacts of utilizing   various natural resources. His research interest is in discovering and developing appropriate and innovative chemical processes for the conversion of locally available resources into useful products.

His achievements include:

Conversion of readily available carbohydrates (sucrose, lactose, fructose and glucose) into furfural, hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF) and HMF dimers using DMSO.  These products have proven and potential industrial uses. Munavu’s team were first to report on these DMSO-mediated reactions
The behaviour of alcohols and diols in the presence of DMSO, dialkylsulphides and bromine. His team were first to report on the synthesis of methylene acetals using diols in the presence of DMSO and bromine. The reaction intermediate, trimethylsulphonium bromide, is now commercially available.
Extraction, chemical studies, and potential uses of vegetable oils from the seeds of local plants. The oil of Croton megalocarpus, Jatropha and cape Chestnut are now being piloted for production of biodiesel in Kenya.

Prof. Bonaventure T. Ngadjui has mainly been involved in the study of the active components of plants used in indigenous medicine in Cameroon. His research approach has progressively been directed to the bioassay-guided isolation, leading to the isolation of several compounds from plants.

He has investigated, among others, the constituents of the Cameroonian medicinal plants Alchornea cordifolia, Dorstenia mannii, Dorstenia poinsettifolia, Dorstenia involuta, Dorstenia zenkeri, Dorstenia prorepen, Bridelia micrantha Harungana madagascariensis, Vismia laurentii, Eriosema glomerata. Several new secondary metabolites were isolated from the active extracts, from which he was able to identify several promising antiinflammatory, antimicrobial and alpha-glucosidase inhibitor compounds, using the untapped potential Cameroonian medicinal plants.

These compounds are of high interest for the pharmaceutical industry. The results were reported in journals of high international repute (more than 130 publications).

His research interests have also expanded to the isolation of several bioactive compounds including plumericin and isoplumericin, two carcinogenic compounds, from the Cameroonian medicinal plant Plumeria rubra. These two compounds showed strong antifungal activities with radii of zones of inhibition of 28 and 25 mm, respectively, compared to the potent commercialized antifungal compound Nystatin (zone of inhibition 20 mm). Fractions containing these compounds were also very active and cannot be recommended for healing a cold or related disease by the local population due to their carcinogenic properties.

Most of these scientific results were obtained in collaboration with foreign scientists such as Prof. Abegaz Berhanu at the University of Botswana, Prof. H. Laatsch at the Department of Chemistry, University of Goettingen, Prof. K. Krohn at the Department of Chemistry, University of Paderborn, Germany, Prof. J.D. Connolly at the Department of Chemistry, University of Glasgow and Prof. M. Iqbal Choudhary at the HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry, University of Karachi, Pakistan. Prof. Ngadjui has been appointed as head of the Pharmaceutical Sciences and Traditional Pharmacopoeia in the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of the University of Yaounde 1.

Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, Professor of Chemistry, heads the Centre for Phytotherapy Research. Elected Chairperson to the ICSU – Regional Office for Africa (2011-2014), she served as Dean, Faculty of Science and Pro Vice Chancellor (2004-2010) and Manager at the Mauritius Research Council (1995-1997).

With a BSc and PhD (Chemistry) from the Universities of Surrey and Exeter, UK (1983) (1987), she joined the University of Mauritius in 1987 and served as Project leader for the first regional research project ‘Inventory and study of medicinal and aromatic plants of the Indian Ocean’ (1988-1992).

She served as the national coordinator for the ‘Indian Ocean University’ (European Union 2000-2002); participated in several consultation meetings on environmental issues and served as the lead coordinating author on the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) spearheaded by the World Bank (2006-2008). She presently serves as an independent director on the local advisory Committee of Barclays Plc.

Founding member of the Pan African Association of African Medicinal Plants, she co-authored the African Herbal Pharmacopoeia and serves as: Reference Group Member to the ISP, Uppsala University, Scientific advisor to the IFS, Sweden, Member of the International Advisory Committee for the Cyclotron project, La Reunion (France) and as the international representative on the Canadian AUCC-CIDA projects.
Author and/or co-editor of books, book chapters and scientific papers within the field of biodiversity conservation and sustainable development, she was elected Fellow of: Linnean Society, London (2007), Islamic Academy of Science, Jordan (2009), African Science Institute (2010). She received the l’Oreal-UNESCO Prize for Women in Science and National Economic and Social Council Prize (2007); the CTA/NEPAD/AGRA/RUFORUM, African Union Commission Award for Women in Science (2009). Elevated to the Order of CSK by the Government of Mauritius in 2008, she was admitted ‘Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques’

Olanike Kudirat Adeyemo, DVM, MVPH, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Her research interest includes aquatic epidemiology and toxicology, involving risk assessment of anthropogenic contaminants to environmental, wildlife and human health.

Her pioneering role as the first female in the field of Aquatic Veterinary Medicine in any Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Nigeria and commendable contributions to scholarship in an under-represented field of research (aquatic epidemiology and toxicology) has earned her several recognitions, including an award by the Society for Toxicology, USA and an appointment to the roster of experts of the Joint FAO/WHO Committee on Food Additives (JECFA).

Dr.  Adeyemo was elected Fellow and listed in the 2011 edition of "Black Achievers in Science and Technology", a publication of the African Scientific Institute (ASI), Oakland, California, USA, which recognizes the achievement of excellence of each fellow in his/her field. She was selected to represent Nigeria as a Fellow on the Eisenhower Fellowship's common interest program, which brought together emerging leaders from different countries of the world to deliberate on Urban challenges.

Dr. Adeyemo is a Fellow of Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD), International, UK. She was invited to participant in the World Science Forums, held in Budapest in 2005, 2007 and 2009. Olanike Adeyemo is a member of professional societies, scientific Institutions and has over 70 peer-reviewed publications. She has undertaken several commissioned research projects, and consultancy services on aquatic pollution assessment and climate change impact/vulnerability assessment.

Dr. Adeyemo has active collaborations in Africa, Asia, North America and Europe. In December of 2011, she was selected to the membership of Global Young Academy of Inter-academies panel (IAP), the Global Network of Science Academies, for excellence in scholarship and leadership.

Administratively, Dr. Adeyemo is the current Sub-Dean (Postgraduate) of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.  She is also serving on the Board of Internally Generated Revenue, the Research Uptake Committee of the University of Ibadan, and is a member of the ad-hoc Committee on the Development of University of Ibadan Guidelines on Authorship. Olanike Adeyemo has successfully combined her phenomenal career progression with marriage. She is happily married and is blessed with 3 boys and a girl.

Prof. Abdool Karim obtained his PhD in 1999 from the University of Natal in South Africa.

Currently, he is Scientific Director of CAPRISA (Center for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa), President of the South African Medical Research Council, Pro-Vice Chancellor of Research at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, and Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University of New York.  


He is Chair of the UNAIDS Scientific Expert Panel and an elected Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences and is a Foreign Associate Member of the US Institute of Medicine. He is the recipient of “TWAS Prize in Medical Sciences” and the Gold Medal Award from the Academy of Science in South Africa.

His contributions to microbicides for HIV prevention spans two decades and culminated in the CAPRISA 004 tenofovir gel trial which provided proof-of-concept that antiretroviral drugs can prevent sexually transmitted HIV infection and herpes simplex virus type 2 in women. He is co-inventor on patents which have been used in several HIV vaccine candidates.

His clinical research on TB-HIV treatment has shaped international guidelines on the clinical management of co-infected patients. This sense of commitment to improving health through science and innovation has placed him among the world leaders in AIDS.

Quarraisha Abdool Karim, PhD is an epidemiologist who has had a profound impact on HIV prevention globally through the CAPRISA 004 study that demonstrated that tenofovir gel prevents both HIV and HSV-2 infection published in Science and ranked by Science as one of the top 10 breakthroughs in 2010.

Her research is the culmination of more than 20 years of research on HIV infection in women, including seminal contributions on the evolving epidemiology and prevention of HIV in women as reflected in her extensive publications several in high impact journals including Science, Nature, Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine.

Her contributions extend to HIV treatment, where she is a key investigator in the research team that defined when to initiate antiretroviral treatment in TB-HIV co-infected patients that was the basis for the WHO’s international policies and guidelines on TB and HIV co-treatment.  In addition to her research, she has contributed to post-graduate training of more than 300 young South African scientists in HIV and TB research through the Columbia University - Southern African Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Program, which she directs. Dr Abdool Karim is a Professor in Public Health at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Associate Professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University in New York and Associate Scientific Director of CAPRISA – Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa.

She has been the recipient of several  international and national awards for her scientific contributions the most recent being the Order of Mapungubwe conferred by the South African  State President, a highest recognition for a citizen that recognizes excellence and personal accomplishments which have made a significant impact globally.

Romain Murenzi is the executive director of TWAS, the academy of sciences for the developing world, in Trieste, Italy. Murenzi was born in Rwanda and raised in Burundi.

After graduating from the National University of Burundi in 1982, he taught mathematics in high school for three years before being awarded a fellowship for doctoral studies from the Catholic University of Louvain, where he earned his doctorate degree in physics in 1990.

Murenzi subsequently became a postdoctorate researcher at the Center for Research and Advanced Training in Scientific Computation in Toulouse, France, and a professor of physics at Clark Atlanta University in the United States. Between 2001 and 2009, he served as the minister of science and technology in Rwanda.

He returned to the United States in 2009 to assume a joint appointment as director of the Center for Science, Technology, and Sustainable Development at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington, DC, and visiting professor at the University of Maryland's Institute of Advanced Computer Studies in College Park, Maryland.

He was appointed executive director of TWAS in April 2011. Murenzi is member of the following boards:  the Global Research Council (GRC), the Global Viral Network (GVN), and the Sustainable Development Solution Network (SDSN). Murenzi's major areas of research include multidimensional continuous wavelet transforms to quantum mechanics, image and video processing, and science and technology policy.

Prof. Ilori obtained his D.Phil. in 1972 from the University of Oxford in UK and joined the University of Ibadan in Nigeria as Lecturer where he rose through the ranks and became Professor in 1982.


He has served as Head of Department of Mathematics; Dean of the Faculty of Sciences and Provost of the College of Science and Technology, National President of the Mathematical Association of Nigeria and Chairman of the African Mathematical Union Commission on Pan-African Mathematical Olympiad.

He was appointed in 2004 Regional coordinator of the Network for West Africa Zone 1 of the African Mathematics Millennium Science Initiative. His research interests are in geometry and topology of flag manifolds and flag bundles. He has collaborations with different professional Societies and Scientific Institutions also, has received awards and recognitions and has 35 publications.

Abba Gumel is a Professor at University of Maryland (where he holds The Michael and Eugenia Brin Endowed E-Nnovate Chair in Mathematics).  He received his B.Sc. degree in mathematics from Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria and a PhD in Mathematics from Brunel University London, United Kingdom, in 1994.  His research work spans three main areas of Applied Mathematics, namely Mathematical Biology, Applied Dynamical Systems and Computational Mathematics.

 In particular, his work focuses on the use of mathematical approaches to gain insight into the transmission dynamics and control of emerging and re-emerging diseases. His recent emphasis is on modelling the effect of climate change on the global distribution and burden of vector-borne diseases, such as dengue fever, malaria, West Nile virus and Zika. Professor Gumel has written over 150 journal articles and edited three books.  He is actively involved in numerous capacity-building efforts in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines across the continent of Africa and other developing regions of the world.  He is a member of numerous professional organizations, and has received numerous awards and prizes in recognition of his research excellence and services. 

Tom Kariuki is a graduate of the University of Nairobi, Kenya, and the University of York, UK, where he undertook his PhD studies in immunology under the mentorship of Prof Alan Wilson.

He currently works at the Institute of Primate Research (IPR; www.primateresearch.org), a Biomedical and Conservation biology facility that is a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Tropical Diseases and Human Reproduction, and an African ANDI Centre of Excellence in Preclinical Research, located in Nairobi, as Senior Research Scientistand current Director.

His research interests are on the immunology of major and neglected infectious diseases, co-infection of major and neglected diseases and the influence of worm infections on vaccination outcomes. He has published widely on aspects of vaccines and diagnosticsdevelopment for schistosomiasis (Bilharzia), malaria and co-infections. His research support comes from the European Foundations, NIH, South-South collaborations and local funding organizations.

He is a recipient of various international awards including Fellowship of the African Academy of Sciences, Senior Fellowship of the European Foundations Initiative for Neglected Tropical Diseases and presidential honor of the Order of Grand Warrior of Kenya for public service.

He is the current President of the Federation of African Immunological Societies (FAIS), a committee member of the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS)-Education Committee, and member of the management committee/acting Treasurer of the African Academy of Sciences. He also serves on other sporting, community and academic boards. He is married with two daughters.

Toka Diagana was born and raised in Mauritania. He received his PhD in mathematics from the UniversitéClaude Bernard – Lyon 1, France in 1999 and then joined Howard University in Washington DC, USA in August 2000 as a faculty.

He became a full professor in July 2007. His research interests are in evolution equations, operator theory, functional analysis, difference equations, stochastic differential equations, integrodifferential equations, and p-adic spectral theory. He has authored over 100 research articles and 6 books in mathematics. Diagana is the founding editor of the "African Diaspora Journal of Mathematics”, "Communications in Mathematics Analysis", and "Journal of Abstract Differential Equations and Applications", and serves as an editor-in-chief and/or an associate editor for several other mathematical journals.

Professor Diagana is a recipient of the Mauritanian well-known “Prix Chinguitt”. The Prix Chinguitt in sciences is a national prize awarded yearly to reward the merits of either a citizen of Mauritania or of another country for major research achievements in sciences.

The prize was awarded to Professor Diagana in December 2006 during an official ceremony in Nouakchott before the President of Mauritania and the diplomatic corps. Additionally, in Spring 2006, he received the Howard University’s Emerging Scholar award.

Academic qualifications: Higher Diploma in Applied Chemistry (Ibadan Poly), Postgraduate Diploma in Geological Sciences (ASUTECH), Master of Technology in Extraction Metallurgy (UJ), Master & Doctor of Technology in Environmental Health (CUT), PhD in Soil Mineralogy (UNIN), Certificates in Higher Education Management (UNIVEN), Project Management (UJ), Advanced Project Management (Thomson Netg & UL), Strategic Management (UNISA), and Governance, Risks & Ethics (Ernst & Young, ID & UJ). Research interests: geochemistry & mineralogy of soils and clay minerals, and environmental & human health.

He is Professor of Applied Clay Mineralogy & Environmental Geology since 2008, Secretary General of African Academy of Sciences (AAS) (2014 -) & Member of its Advisory Committee on Space, Earth and Environmental Sciences (2014-) and its Management Committee and Governing Council; Life Member: Geological Society of Africa (GSAf); and Association of Geoscientists for International Development (AGID); Member of Soil Science Society of Southern Africa (SSSSA), and International Association for the Study of Clays (AIPEA). He is Deputy Chairperson of Limpopo Research Forum (LRF) of South Africa; and National Research Foundation (NRF) C2 rated Researcher 2007-2012, 2013-2018.

Awards include: Indiana Black Expo, 1992; Briscoe Scientific (UK), 1996/1997; ESKOM Development Foundation, 2002; Ron Jenkins (USA), 2003; and INORMS-SARIMA, 2010; and leader of both Clays and Clay Minerals in Africa; and Human and Enzootic Geophagia in Southern Africa Projects. Importantly, he convened the 1st and 2nd International Conferences on Human and Enzootic Geophagia in Southern Africa; and chaired the Scientific Committee of the 1st International Conference on Clays and Clay Minerals in Africa; and the 1st and 2nd UNIVEN-WSU International Research Conferences.

He is Director of Research and Innovation, University of Venda; has worked in Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, USA, Botswana and South Africa. Some previous positions held include Director: Research Development, Walter Sisulu University; Professor and Coordinator of Geology, Mining and Minerals Programs, University of Limpopo; Scientist in charge of the X-Ray Diffraction Unit, University of Botswana; Visiting Research Associate, Clay Minerals Research Laboratory, and Academic Tutor, Afro-American Tutorial Program, Indiana University, USA. Professor Ekosse has assisted, trained, supervised, promoted several postgraduate/masters/doctoral students, and continues to do so.

He has authored/co-authored 4 books; 10 book chapters; 138 refereed journal articles; 55 refereed articles in conference/workshop proceedings; six technical reports; 42 conference/workshop/seminar papers; one article in popular magazine; five edited works; two published book reviews; five articles in non-refereed journals; and 10 posters. In the last 15 years, he has organised 25 different scientific fieldworks in Botswana, Cameroon, South Africa & Swaziland; 5 Workshops, 6 International Conferences and Symposium. His research findings have been presented in Bangladesh, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, England, Italy, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mozambique, Uganda, Spain, South Africa, Swaziland, and USA.

Three recent and representative publications:

Diko M, Ekosse G, Ogola J (2016) Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Thermal analyses of kaolinitic Clays from South Africa and Cameroon. Acta Geodyn Geomater 13 (2) (182) DOI: 10.13168/AGG.2015.0052

Ngole-Jeme VM, Ekosse GE (2015) A comparative analyses of granulometry, mineral composition and major and trace element concentrations in soils commonly ingested by humans. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, DOI: 10.3390/ijerph120808933, 12, 8933-8955

Ekosse GE, Mwitondi KS (2015) Principal component analysis evaluate the variations in major elements in kaolin deposit. Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Ethiopia 29 (1), 41-51

Professor Jean-Pierre Ezin was born in Benin Republic in 1944 .He was  educated at school and high school levels at Collège Père Aupiais. Next he did undergraduate studies at Université Cheick Anta Diop in Dakar , Sénégal where he obtained  MSc degree in Mathematics ,1968. He did his postgraduate studies at Université Lille I (Lille-Flandres), France,  There he obtained PhD in mathematics in 1972 and the French Doctorat d'Etat in Sciences with Riemannian Geometry as his major speciality in 1981. In between Professor Ezin has been graduated at the same university in France with an MBA degree in 1971.

Jean-Pierre Ezin  started his professional experiences as lecturer at the University of Lille-Flandres ,1972-1973 and at the Université Nationale du Benin 1973-1977 . He continued   his university career as senior lecturer at the University of Lille-Flandres 1977-1982. From 1982 he is associate professor and full professor at Université Nationale du Benin ,today Université d'Abomey-Calavi and at the other univesities in Benin .

Jean-Pierre Ezin is a ditinguished professor and reseacher in differential geometry , Riemannanian geometry and global analysis as well as in African science policy. He did scientific visits to several prestigious institutions and universities ; Lille-Flandres(197-1982), Ecole Polytechnique (1985-1986), the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste , Italy (1986-1988), Clark Atlanta Universty  USA (1993) , Max Planck Institute in Leipzig  Germany,(1995), University of Fortaleza ,Brazil (1996) etc.

Professor Ezin set up GIRAGA , a continentwide regular conference to promomte differential geometry and global analysis in Africa. He has been Recteur of the Université Nationale du Bénin and Founder Director of the famous IMSP (Institut de Mathématiques et de Sciences Physiques)in Porto-Novo , Bénin. He published more than forty spcialized papers in mathematics and in  science policy. He is really sensitive to scientific capacity building in Africa. He made significant contributions in that domain in his positions of African Union Commssioner (2008-2013) and Economic Community of West African States Commissioner(2014-2016) for Education and Science by setting up the Pan African University and Nnamdy Azikiwe academic mobility scheme to mention a few.

He is granted with Palmes Académiques Francaises, Ordre Internationales des Pames Acdemiques du CAMES, de l'Ordre National du Bénin ; he has been member of the Board of American NSF and of Sweedish ISP . Professor Ezin has been Chair of the Board of French AIRD( Agence Inter-Etablissement de Recherche pour le developpement)..

Prof. Abdelaal was trained in Egypt at Cairo University where he obtained his PhD in 1958 and D.Sc. in 1996. He is the founding Director of Assiut University Mycological Centre (AUMC) in Egypt.

He was vice president for higher studies and research, dean at Qatar and Assiut Universities. His research interest is in environmental mycology.


He has won several awards: state prize for excelling research in biological sciences, state medal in science and arts and state prize of merit in basic sciences. He has supervised 26 PhD and 46 M.Sc. Twenty of his former research students are full professors of mycology in Egyptian universities. He has published more than 115 scientific papers, two books in Arabic and has arabicized the dictionary of botanical terms from Latin and old Greek origins and their meanings in Arabic, English and French.

Prof Banyaga was educated in Switzerland where he obtained B.Sc. in 1971, M.Sc. in 1972 and PhD in 1976 from the University of Geneva. He is currently at the Department of Mathematics of the Pennsylvania State University.

He held his first position in New Jersey at the Institute of Advance study of Princeton in 1977, and then moved to Harvard University as Assistant Professor in 1978, became Associate Professor in 1984 and Professor in 1992.

He was visiting Professor at the University of Louvain in Belgium, Warwick in UK; Butare in Rwanda, Porto Novo in Benin; Maryland and Howard in USA. His research interests are in algebra, geometry, typology, contact, poisson, and dynamics sympletic, locally conformal sympletic, volume preserving and measure preserving diffeomorphisms of smooth manifolds.

He has collaborations with Professional Organizations and Scientific Institutions; also has national and international awards and recognitions. He has 70 articles and 2 books published.