NAPE ANNOUNCEMENT NAPENEWS JUNE <strong>2022</strong> 56
FELLOWS’ INTERVIEW NAPE 2021, Fellowship Award- Five Members Confereered with Award Six members from the oil & gas industry and academia were confereed with the prestigious NAPE Fellowship Award at the 39th Annual International Conference and Exhibition (AICE). The induction of the new Fellowship Awardees, swells the number of NAPE Fellows to 164. The new NAPE Fellows are , Mr. Abdullahi D. Bomai, Dr. Anthony Ofoma, Professor Olusola Johnson Ojo, Mr. Mbah Reginald Okechukwu, Mrs. Olabisi Olopade, and Mr. Marcel Ogbonna Amu. NAPEnews interviewed two of the Awardees, Professor Olusola Johnson Ojo, FNAPE from the academia and Mr. Marcel Ogbonna Amu, FNAPE from the Oil & gas industry. What have been your high points in your professional journey? M y c a r e e r s p a n s o v e r 25years, it started as a joke when I was posted to the university as a serving youth corps member and had to teach. That brought me into what I called the 'World of Academics'. Since then, I have remained in academics. After my NYSC, I went to the University of Ibadan (UI) for m y M S c . i n P e t r o l e u m Geology. After the MSc, the top students were selected, the Vice-Chancellor invited me to submit my CV, and I was given a job without application. I joined my former teacher, in a research program at Uni- Ilorin, where I acquired a PhD, a n d m y c a r e e r h a s progressed from assistant lecturer to professorial rank. Then, six years ago, I moved to Federal University Oye Ekiti (FUOYE), and I established a Prof Olusola Johnson Ojo, FNAPE program 'Geology' that is now fully accredited. I've held many academic and administrative positions like h e a d o f d e p a r t m e n t s , postgraduate coordinator, chairman of the examinations committee and several other committees. I was appointed the deputy vice-chancellor of the Federal Univeraity Oye Ekiti, and just completed my tenure. I have produced several doctorate degree holders, one of my students celebrated his professorial appointment at the just concluded NMGS conference, and others are doing well. I consider all these highlights, and I'm still aiming for more. W h e n d i d y o u r N A P E journey start, and how has it positively affected your career? NAPE has played a significant r o l e i n m y c a r e e r d e v e l o p m e n t ; I s t a r t e d f e a t u r i n g i n 1 9 9 4 a s a member. Each year, with my mentor's support, I always make sure to present a paper a t t h e N A P E A n n u a l International Conference (AICE). NAPE presented a platform to build confidence and presentation skills. In those days at the university, PowerPoint was not used for presentations, but it was c o m p u l s o r y t o p r e p a r e PowerPoint presentations at NAPE conferences. It was also compulsory to submit abstracts in NAPE, this also instilled in me the skills of how to write abstracts with 250 words limits. NAPE also provided incentives for p r e s e n t a t i o n s , w h i c h encouraged many of us to make presentations. In 1996 I won the 2nd best paper award and also won the Most Outstanding Lecturer Award in 2016. What contributions should we expect from you as a NAPE Fellow? First, I'll consolidate what I've been doing for NAPE and continue to be part of the t e c h n i c a l c o m m i t t e e , i n c l u d i n g t r a i n i n g geoscientists at various levels. I'll also be using my new position to do better, making contributions to the editorial committee of NAPE to see how NAPE's journals can be registered so that many more people can subscribe to it and it can become fully international. Finally, as a top education manager, I can support the N A P E U A P t o h e l p l i f t geosciences education in Nigeria. Final Words I must say thumbs up to NAPE; they should continue to do what they know how to do best, they should continue to bring us a very organised I n t e r n a t i o n a l A n n u a l Conference. They should c o n t i n u e t o s u p p o r t universities through NAPE- UAP, a very strong arm of NAPE. We've not felt the impact of the UAP in the last two years as we've always had. The NAPE -UAP should scale up and be more active and involved. Many students have benefitted from the research grants; those things meant a lot. I have benefited a lot; I've often been called to Lagos to undergo training on some software, sequence stratigraphy etc. I don't know if such things still happen. There was a time we had M o b i l f i e l d w o r k ; t h e universities were given an area to produce a map where both students and lecturers participated. These things impacted a lot. These are some things NAPE should continue doing, no matter the challenges. NAPENEWS JUNE <strong>2022</strong> 57
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