The 56th Inaugural Lecturer of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Professor Adeniyi Olowofela has decried the shortage of manpower in Solid Earth Geophysics, calling on Government and stakeholders in the education sector to urgently address the challenge, in order to harness the financial prosperity in Geophysics.
Prof. Olowofela stated this while delivering the Inaugural Lecture titled, “The Use of Innocuous Geo (Physical) Tools In Discerning The Bowel of The Earth: A Strategy For Manpower Development”, at the Ceremonial Building of the University on Wednesday, May 23, 2018.
Dissecting the state of Geophysics in the country, Professor Olowofela who is Oyo State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology noted that “As at 2018 the total number of Universities in Nigeria is 158 with less than 2000 Geophysicists in these institutions”.
The Professor of Solid Earth Geophysics lamented that “for a population of over 170 million people, the intellectual “where house” of this subject is abysmally low”.
The Inaugural Lecturer attributed the development to “high cost of setting up geophysics research”.
He proferred that “If we can be creative and ingenious in our approach, as demonstrated in this Lecture, we shall be able to produce quality and adequate manpower (in Solid Earth Geopohysics) in the country and open ways to financial prosperity”.
Earlier in his Lecture, Professor Olowofela defined Geophysics as a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis.
He stressed that Geophysics is relevant to humanity in the sense that it’s applicable to societal needs, such as mineral resources, mitigation of natural hazards and environmental protection.
On his contributions to knowledge as Professor of Solid Earth Geophysics, Professor Olowofela articulated them to include Geo-electric Investigation of the proposed seismographic station at the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
Mapping of unconfined aquifer using vertical sounding (VES) at Lagos State University (LASU), among several others.
Speaking further, the University Don expressed joy that the Department of Physics, FUNAAB is one of the active research centres on Aeromagnetic Studies in Nigeria with several published works.
He expressed gratitude to the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Kolawole Salako, the Dean of College of Physical Sciences (COLPHYS) and the entire University Community for the privilege of delivering the Institution’s 56th Inaugural Lecture.
Earlier in his introduction of the Inaugural Lecturer, the Chairman of the Lecture and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Salako described Professor Olowofela as a Solid Earth Geophysicist per excellence.
The Inaugural lecture was graced by Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, who was represented by his Deputy, Chief Moses Adeyemo, serving Commissioners and Special Advisers, as well as Heads of tertiary Institutions in the State.