AMIR Fund Announces First Recipients of Professor Adebayo Shittu Research Award

(From Left to Right: Blessing Olasupo, Temitope Ayano, Adebayo Shittu, Tomiwa Adesoji)

AMIR Fund Fund for Education, Science, and Technology has announced the inaugural recipients of the Professor Adebayo Shittu Research Award in Molecular Biology, a new initiative to support graduate-level biomedical research at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife.

The beneficiaries of the award are Blessing Olasupo and Temitope Ayano, both MSc students, and Tomiwa Adesoji, a postdoctoral fellow, all working under the supervision of Professor Adebayo Shittu in the Department of Microbiology, OAU. Their research focuses on infectious diseases and oncology, areas of critical importance to public health in Nigeria and beyond.

The award was established by Mr Ridwan Sorunke, an alumnus of Microbiology from OAU, through the AMIR FEST endowment to reflect his commitment to giving back to his alma mater and supporting the next generation of Nigerian scientists.

Announcing the award, Professor Shittu highlighted the personal motivation behind the initiative, noting that he had to discontinue his own PhD programme in the late 1990s due to financial challenges. He described the award as a response to the persistent difficulties faced by many Nigerian graduate students who struggle to sustain themselves while pursuing advanced research.

“This support will allow the recipients to focus more fully on their research without the constant burden of financial uncertainty,” he said.

The Professor Adebayo Shittu Research Award is the first home-grown private initiative explicitly dedicated to supporting graduate students within the Department of Microbiology at OAU.

He expressed deep appreciation to Mr Sorunke for his vision and generosity, describing the initiative as a model that deserves to be replicated across Nigerian tertiary institutions.