The College of Medicine, University of Ibadan celebrates our latest fellows in the Nigerian Academy of Science.
We rejoice with you on this well deserved recognition and convey the warm wishes of the entire CoMUI community.
Meet the new fellows:
Olufunmilayo Fawole is a professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ibadan (UI) and an adjunct Professor at San Diego State University, USA.
She was UI’s Dean of Public Health (2016-2020) and currently the Director, Office of International Programmes. Stanford/Elsevier ranked her among the world top 2% scientists for five years (2021–2025). She has published more than 200 papers and has won more than 30 highly competitive grants as PI/Co-PI. She has collaborated extensively in research and policy engagements with international partners in South Africa, UK and US.
She has led capacity-building across West Africa on field epidemiology through engagement with AFENET/NFELTP. She also led EU/ACDC-funded MPH with specialization in outbreak management. Through her work, she has contributed significantly to fellowship and doctoral education across sub-Saharan Africa.
A remarkable health systems leader, Fawole has led national and sub-national evaluations and outbreak investigations. She provides technical expertise to governments and international partners that guide policy. With WHO, she led initiatives that supported Nigeria’s wild poliovirus-free certification. She also contributed significantly to COVID-19 response in sub-Saharan Africa through her research findings.
Fawole is a leading expert on gender-based violence and has initiated several landmark interventions that have shaped national practices and positively impacted vulnerable populations. Her “Girls Invest” intervention, for example, provided financial literacy, vocational equipment and scholarships to several vulnerable girls.
Currently, she leads the Nigerian component of ALAMIME project that trains malaria programme officers across nine countries.
She has served on many international committees and boards.
Professor Olukemi K. Amodu is a Professor of Genetics, Molecular Biology, and Public Health at the Institute of Child Health (ICH), at the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan. She established the Institute’s Genetics and Molecular Sciences Unit and Laboratory and pioneered the Public Health Biotechnology (PHB) Master’s and Doctoral Programs, an innovative curriculum linking genomics and public health.
These programs have trained more than 120 MSc and nine PhD Students (finalists and in-training). She served as Director of the Institute of Child Health from August 2019 to July 2022, strengthening research, training, and service, including the launching of a hybrid e-classroom (with support from the First City Monument Bank Plc) to enable borderless learning. She is currently the Director of ICH, the tenure which began in August 2025.
Professor Amodu’s research sits at the cutting edge of molecular epidemiology and infectious disease genomics, with landmark contributions that highlight how precision public health can apply genetics to disease prevention. Her doctoral and postdoctoral work demonstrated that quantifying hemozoin (a malaria pigment) within neutrophils correlates with malaria severity, establishing hemozoin as a reliable prognostic biomarker.
She also discovered a polymorphic 16-copy, 11-bp repeat upstream of the msp-2 gene, suggesting a regulatory role in gene transcription with implications for vaccine design. Beyond parasite genetics, she has identified human genetic determinants, including the ABO Blood Group B, ferroportin, G6PD, and Toll-Like Receptor Variants, that heighten the risk of severe malaria, providing a basis for targeted interventions.
Professor Amodu has collaborated with local and international experts and several international consortia including multicenter studies such as the H3Africa Kidney Disease Research Network. Her scholarship spans 120+ peer-reviewed publications, reflecting sustained scientific influence across genetics, biotechnology, and public health.
She was Co-Chair of the UI@75 International Innovation Conference and serves the global scientific community as a grant reviewer and as an external examiner and assessor for many institutions.