Tense and unstable domestically from unproductive quarrelling over pittances left by the lords of neoliberal globalisation, Nigeria nevertheless never tires in exceptionalism on a global scale every now and then. And it has done it again, this time the election of citizen Ijeoma Uchegbu as the 7th President of Wolfson College at the University of Cambridge in the UK. Cambridge, like Oxford and very few other UK universities, are organised in colleges.
Professor Uchegbu who will assume office at Wolfson College on October 1, 2024, coinciding with the 64th Independence anniversary of her fatherland is known for a track record of ground breaking academic works at the top tier University College London (UCL) where the professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience is known for what is described as “her ground-breaking work in nanoparticle drug delivery”
The announcement from Wolfson College available to Intervention says Professor Ijeoma Uchegbu will be succeeding the current President, Professor Jane Clarke when she leaves UCL where she is currently Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience. Her pioneering work on the mechanisms of drug transport is said to have led to the development of new treatments which promise to transform pain relief, including the enkephalin pain medicine candidate.
According to the statement from Wolfson College, her work has won her numerous awards, fellowships and accolades, and she holds positions on several academic boards and councils including the Wellcome Trust, the Academy of Medical Sciences and is an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. She has also played a leading role during her time at UCL as Pro Vice Provost for Africa and the Middle East, in forging new research partnerships in those regions and as UCL’s Provost’s Envoy for Race Equality, steering the organisation’s race equality agenda, the statement also said.
Professor Uchegbu has been quoted in the statement as responding to her election by stating, “I am so thrilled to be joining Wolfson College, an ambitious and forward-thinking College. It will be an honour to lead such a lively, diverse and engaged student community in an environment where people are stimulated culturally, socially and intellectually. I look forward to working with the Governing Body, staff and students to help realise their ambitions and potential.”
Professor Jane Clarke whom she is taking over from has equally been quoted as congratulating Ijeoma, adding “If she finds being the leader of the ‘Wolfpack’ half as rewarding as I have then I can assure her that she will enjoy herself immensely.”
An additional report Intervention also read on her emergence indicates that Professor Uchegbu was raised in Southeastern Nigeria and Hackney (UK) and that she completed her pharmacy studies at the University of Benin in 1981 before attending the University of Lagos to obtain her master’s degree. This report suggests that for lack of infrastructure issues, she was unable to finish her doctorate in Nigeria, returning to the UK to engage in postgraduate work at the University of London, (meaning UCL in this case since the University of London is a federation) earning a PhD in 1997. Alexander (Sandy) Florence, the Dean of the School of Pharmacy supervised her dissertation. And that, from 2002 to 2004, she worked as a lecturer at the University of Strathclyde.
Presidency of a college in Cambridge is a major academic leadership attainment because each college is a network of activities straddling the sectoral and the global.
