The Schlumberger Foundation, a non-profit organization launched a pilot outreach programme in Nigeria during September 17th to 21st 2018, at Golden Tulip Hotel Ibadan and Transcrop Hilton Hotel Abuja.
The aim of the outreach according to the President of the Foundation, Rosaline Chapel is to tap into the strength, enthusiasm and talented network of the Faculty for the Future community. To further tackle at institution and community level, specific barriers to women in STEM.
The Foundation in 2004, launched the Faculty for the Future programme to provide scholarships to women to pursue PhD or Post-doc degrees in STEM Disciplines in top universities worldwide and till date have supported a total of 683 women from 81 developing countries.
Ninety-seven of the awardees come from Nigeria, which is 15% of the Faculty for the Future Community and 37 have graduated and are now back in Nigeria working either in academic, in research, as policy makers or as STEM entrepreneurs.
Dr Edu Inam, Director, International Centre for Energy and Environmental Sustainability Research, is an awardee having received the scholarship between 2008 and 2010 to pursue postdoc at Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), South Korea. She was selected as one of the eight alumni back in Nigeria to share her success story during the event. Dr Inam’s major achievement in line with the objective of the FFTF programme is the establishment of a Memorandum of Understanding between her host University (Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, GIST) and her home university (University of Uyo).
This MOU is the most successful and viable in the University of Uyo till date. Through the MOU 30 people (from Nigeria and 5 other African countries) have attended various training courses in GIST from one to six months fully funded by the Government of South Korea. GIST remains the major funder of Dr. Inam’s researches which have produced several publications in high impact journals and 20 master degree graduates (9 female).
Dr inam is thankful and grateful to the Schlumberger Foundation for transforming her career through the opportunity to study in a top university where her research, innovation and leadership skills were thoroughly developed. According to Dr Inam, she has been transformed from a local, unknown researcher to an International expert in the field of chemicals monitoring. She is excited about the new responsibility of working in the “Equipment” work group to address the lack of information and accessibility of STEM equipment in Nigeria.