Professor Francisca Okeke: recognised
for her work on ionosphere By PM News, Lagos
A Nigerian female scientist has bagged a prize of $100,000, as one of the winners of the 2013 L’Oréal-UNESCO Awards in Physical Sciences. Professor Francisca Okeke, the first female Head of Department, University of Nigeria Nsukka bagged the 2013 Laureate award for her significant contributions “to the understanding of daily variations of the ion currents in the upper atmosphere which may further our understanding of climate change.” UNESCO says Professor Okeke has
made the study of the ionosphere her
lifetime work.

The ionosphere lies between 50km and 1000kms above the earth surface. “A very thick layer of charged particles, the ionosphere produces changes in the magnetic field on earth’s surface that affect the planet in a host of ways. Her research could lead to a better understanding of climate change and help pinpoint sources of dramatic phenomena like tsunamis and earthquakes”, a summary of her
research published by UNESCO read. The awards were announced last year
October, but the award ceremony took
place at the weekend in Paris.
She was the only recipient in that
category from Africa and the Arab
nations and the third Nigerian Laureate since the UNESCO-L’Oreal partnership
was established in 1998.

Professor Okeke got a prize of $100,000. Four others also got awards in the
Laureate category with each
representing Europe, Latin America,
North America and the Asia Pacific
regions. UK Scientist Professor Pratibha Gai of York University won the 2013 European Laureate award. She was recognised for “ingeniously modifying her electron
microscope so that she was able to
observe chemical reactions occurring at surface atoms of catalysts which will help scientists in their development of new medicines or new energy sources.

Dr Eucharia Oluchi Nwaichi: named a
fellow The second Nigerian award recipient, Dr Eucharia Nwaichi, an environmental bio-chemist from the University of Port Harcourt joined 15 other young scientists in the “International Fellows’’ category.

Okeke told the Western Europe
Correspondent of NAN that she would
continue to encourage women to
participate in the development of science and technology in the country. She noted that cultural challenges were
impeding on women’s participation in
global innovations, stressing that “even
though it is seen as a male dominated
field, people like us inspire others’’.

Similarly, Nwaichi, who was recognised
for her research on “scientific solution to environmental pollution’’, stressed the
need for increased motivation to support
women in the field. Amb Mariam Katagum, Nigeria’s Permanent Delegate to UNESCO, said candidates who met the criteria were selected by a jury based on their submitted projects. “Two important elements are respecting
the deadline and also making their
submission through the Nigerian National Commission for UNESCO, because that gives it authenticity. “For us as delegates, as soon as we
knew we had possible candidates from
Nigeria, we ensured that due process
was followed. “There is no interference as you can see, an international jury determined the outcome,’’ she said, adding that the recipients had broken the frontiers in the field of science. According to her, they have become role models for girls, for us as a country, we need to encourage more girls to go into science. “We can only do that by providing the environment, access to quality education and making sure that the facilities that will make them interested in science subjects are in place,’’ she stressed. The international jury which selected the
2013 awardees was led by Nobel Prize
winner, Mr Ahmed Zewail. (NAN)

Really inspirational. This goes to show that we cannot keep using the lack of cutting edge equipment in our labs as an excuse not to conduct ground breaking research. Please tribalists, keep of this topic. She is a Nigerian after all.