Ebun Oni
Professor Ebun Oni (21 May 1935 - 2 December 2021)[1] known in early life as Ebun Adegbohungbe and later as Ebun Adefunmilyo Oni (spousal title) was a Nigerian geophysicist, university teacher and writer. One of Nigeria's first indigenous female scientists, she became a world-renowned specialist in geophysics through her numerous journal publications, and an eminent scientist and educator at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria.
Education
Adegbohungbe was a pupil at the
Adegbohungbe received a Nigerian government scholarship for postgraduate training in
Conference presentations
Already present in the UK, Adegbohungbe attended the Second International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists (ICWES) held in Cambridge in 1967, to present her research as it related to Nigeria's broader imperatives for national development. Her paper "Application of Physics to Some Economic problems in Nigeria" was presented in the second part of the conference ‘Food Enough For Everyone’ which addressed the growing international food supply crisis then arising from rapid global population growth.[6] Spelling out Nigerian government policy that the key to greater food supply was increased overall national wealth, she pointed to Nigeria’s mineral resources as a means to generate the necessary industrialisation. Adegbohungbe thus explained how her expertise in magnetometers could be deployed to locate iron ore for future mining projects. She concluded: "Nigerian scientists, therefore, must make their own contributions in their various fields of learning and research, to the economic progress of the country."[7] A picture of her at the conference banquet, alongside fellow Nigerian physicist Deborah Ajakaiye, was published in The Woman Engineer's report of the conference in July 1967.[8] At the end of the conference she was nominated to sit on the committee chaired by Isabel Hardwich, developed to ensure that a third ICWES conference would take place, alongside Mahin Rahmani, Dorothy Mizoguchi, Bilge Özgüner and Angelina Perez Lopez.[6]
By the time of the Third International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists in Turin Italy, in summer 1971, she had adopted her marital name of Ebun Oni. At this conference she spoke on the challenges faced in 'developing countries' like Nigeria in building connections between national universities and industries.[9] She was closely involved two years later in running the fourth international conference on Equatorial Aeronomy (a branch of atmospheric physics) at Ibadan University in 1972.[10]
Publications
Her first on geophysical publication as a graduate student in 1967 was under her birth name Adegbohungbe and concerned a two‐component proton precession magnetometer specifically to be used in the equatorial zone, i.e. in the African regions including Nigeria.[5] All her subsequent writings (from 1972) on geophysics were under her married surname, Oni. These ranged from theoretical modelling techniques[11][12] then more empirical work in 1973-76, producing six articles in collaboration with fellow University of Ibadan physicist, Alfred Olu Agunloye.[13][14][15][16][17][18] In 1977 she produced two solo papers,[19][20] later collaborating in 1992 with John A Sogade a recent Ibadan physics PhD student, later a geophysicist at M.I.T.[21][22][23]
Career
By 1974 she was a Senior Lecturer in Physics at the University of Ibadan, and in the year Oni visited the United States to undertake research with the National Geophysical and Solar-Terrestrial Data Center. Her visit was reported there as that of a 'renowned geophysicist' seeking to collaborate with American scientists in related fields, specifically citing short-term researcher exchanges as her recommended means to support future scientific collaborations between the USA and Nigeria.[24]
In the 1990s her interest turned to seismology seeking to coordinate national efforts in earthquake research. However, one report in January 2020 indicated that "The National Committee on Earthquake set up by Professor Ebun Oni (1997) is moribund due to lack of funds to continue the project."[25]
During her time at the University of Ibadan, a Physics Students association was formed in the department on May 1, 1985, and for its launch she gave the lecture "The Three Vital processes of Scientific Discovery." Oni was elevated to the position of Professor (1995) and Head of the Physics Department, retiring in 2000.[26]
In addition to her geomagnetic researches published in scientific journals, Oni has also published books under her married name, including an autobiography.[27]
Bibliography
- Ẹbun Oni, Exploring the mind (University of Ibadan, 1975)[28]
- Ebun Adefunmilyo Oni, Light and the Physical Laws of the Universe, (University of Ibadan, 1995)[29]
- Ebun Adefunmilyo Oni, Memoir of a woman physicist (Ibadan: University Press PLC, 2015)[27]
References
- ^ Ade-Hall, Ademuyiwa. "Ebun Adefunmilayo Oni's life story, (1935 - 2021) - ForeverMissed.com". www.forevermissed.com. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
- ^ Augustine Togonu-Bickersteth 'Coincidences: Between German Physicists and Methodist Girls, Yaba, Lagos.' Nigeria's Global Voice: News Express, 8 May 2013
- ^ Proceedings of the Second International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists (Women’s Engineering Society, 1967) Volume 3 ‘The Woman Engineer’ (Discussion) p.9
- ^ Ebun Adegbohungbe, ‘Application to Some Economic problems in Nigeria’, Proceedings of the Second International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists’ (Women’s Engineering Society, 1967) volume 2 ‘Food Enough For Everyone’.[1]
- ^ .
- ^ a b "The Woman Engineer Vol 10". twej.theiet.org. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
- ^ Ebun Adegbohungbe, "Application of Physics to Some Economic problems in Nigeria", Proceedings of the Second International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists (Women's Engineering Society, 1967) volume 2 ‘Food Enough For Everyone’.
- ^ The Woman Engineer, vol. 10, "International conviviality: recovering women in engineering from Africa and Asia in ‘The Woman Engineer’" Issue 6, 1967, p. 27.
- ^ The Woman Engineer, 11 no.3 Winter 1971, p.10
- OCLC 227385332.
- S2CID 119780015.
- S2CID 121818684.
- ISSN 0031-9201.
- ISSN 0021-9169.
- S2CID 121190705.
- S2CID 126653493.
- ISSN 0022-1392.
- S2CID 129345558.
- S2CID 122959233.
- ISSN 0040-1951.
- ^ "J. Sogade". ieeexplore.ieee.org. Retrieved 2022-03-09.
- ISSN 0022-1392.
- ISSN 0022-1392.
- ^ "International Guest Scientist Program" Environmental Data Service, November 1974, p.12
- ^ Funmi Ogundare’ (January 2020) Nigeria: Varsity Don Seeks Adequate Funding for Earth Tremor Research This Day
- ^ 'USA Africa Dialogue Series - Physics Students Association, UNIBADAN 27 years', Dialogue, May 1, 2012.
- ^ a b Ebun Adefunmilyo Oni, Memoir of a woman physicist (Ibadan: University Press PLC, 2015 Archived 2021-10-26 at the Wayback Machine)
- ^ Ebun Oni, Exploring the Mind (University Archived 2022-05-12 at the Wayback Machine of Ibadan, 1975)
- ^ Ebun Adefunmilyo Oni, Light and the Physical Laws of the Universe, (University of Ibadan, 1995)[2]