A Professor of Industrial Chemistry, Cecilia Olufunke Akintayo, will deliver the Inaugural Lecture of the Federal University Oye Ekiti, the university has announced.

The lecture, to be held on Friday, April 12, at the University’s Auditorium, is titled ‘The place of Plant Oil derived products as sustainable replacement for petrochemical products in Industries”.

“This is a historic occasion for us,” the Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Kayode Soreekun, said in a statement issued on Thursday.

Prof. Akintayo started her career as an Assistant Lecturer in 1997 and rose up the ladder as an Associate Professor in 2012. Three years later, she became a full Professor of Industrial Chemistry in Federal University, Oye Ekiti. She undertook postdoctoral work in the Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany, between 2009 and 2011 under the auspices of the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship.

Prof. Akintayo is also a Schlumberger faculty for the future fellowship and has visited the Chemistry Department, Syracuse University, Syracuse New York, United States of America, for a postdoctoral research in collaboration with Prof Daniel Clark. She has published about 30 articles in international peer reviewed journals.

She has won several research grants including; International Foundation of Science Grants (IFS), Third World Academic of Science Grants (TWAS) and Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) research Grants.

Prof. Akintayo is the University Chairman of the TETFund Committee and the Director of Academic Planning, Federal University, Oye Ekiti.

In another development, the head of the university’s Department of Theatre and Media Arts, Mbachaga Desen, Jonathan has been approved to present a paper at the University if Iceland in May. The NORA conference has the theme, “Border Regimes, Territorial Discourses and Feminist Politics”.

Mbachaga’s paper is titled ‘Redefining Female Visibility in Cultural Space: Irene Salami’s ‘The Queen Sisters’ and Ola Rotimi’s ‘Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again’.

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