Adedoyin Adeleke
Founder/Executive Director

Adedoyin Adeleke is a sustainable energy researcher, currently pursuing a doctoral degree within the UNESCO Chair in Energy for Sustainable Development at the Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy and the Founder and Executive Director of the International Support Network for African Development (ISNAD-Africa). He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, and a multidisciplinary master’s degree in Energy Studies from University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. His interest in using theoretical knowledge to impact social and economic development led him to co-invent a 10-seconds chicken de-feathering machine during his undergraduate studies. As his master’s dissertation, he researched on the “Sustainability of Solar Mini-Grids in Nigeria” which profiles factors responsible for failure and success of solar mini-grids in Nigeria.

Adedoyin is named in the 2018 40 Under 40 list of Changemakers in the global solar energy industry (Renewable Energy World, USA) and also the first African to be named in 30 Under 30 list of Changemakers in Environmental Education (North America Association for Environmental Education, USA) since the commencement of the awarding initiative. Also in 2018, he is among the Top 100 Shakers and Movers in e-learning in Africa as rated by Bob Little Press and Public Relations, United Kingdom.

Adedoyin has also received numerous scholarship awards for his excellent educational performance including the Federal Scholarship Board Undergraduate Award, Nigeria (2009-2012) which funded his undergraduate studies and the MacArthur Foundation Grant Scholarship (2015 – 2016) at the Centre for Petroleum, Energy Economics and Law, Ibadan, Nigeria for his master’s degree programme; Fellowship from the German Government for the 69th UNEP/UNESCO/BMUB International Short Course on Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, and Italian Government Scholarship for his Doctoral Study, among others. He has also received several of grants from the Royal Academy of Overseas Science (Belgium), Centre for Petroleum, Energy Economics and Law (Nigeria), Global GreenGrants Fund (USA), among others.

Funded by a fellowship from the German government, Adedoyin was one of the 21 young sustainable energy professionals selected from across the globe who participated at the 69th UNEP/UNESCO/BMUB International Short Course on Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in 2016 at Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany. He has also participated in many conferences, workshops and summer schools on diverse sustainable energy topics in various countries. He served as a Lead Country Contributor for the Paris-based Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21) in preparing its Global Status Reports (2017 and 2018 editions) on Renewable Energy. He also served as a Contributor to the 2017 1 Gigaton Report which tracked contributions of renewable energy and energy efficiency programmes in developing countries to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, among other contributions to causes for green growth and education development globally.

Adedoyin is a relentless volunteer, championing causes for green growth and educational development in Africa. He is the Initiator and Team Lead for the Mentoring for Research Programme, an initiative that facilitates various global supports for graduate students in African universities conducting research on environmental topics. During his National Youth Service in Kano State, Nigeria, he organised six education-based community development programmes which directly benefitted more than 800 high school students and many other young people were indirect beneficiaries through his weekly radio and television programmes in the state. One of the programmes was published by a national newspaper among other media reports.

He says ‘while I specialise in sustainable energy and contribute to educational development, my interest transcend energy and goes beyond education, I want to contribute to the making of the Real Africa: the Africa with llivelihood that reflect its potentials’….‘Africa is too rich to be poor, I choose to Act’.

Agatha Christy Sonma Okoro
Manager, Administration

Oluwadamilola Pikuda
Manager, Programmes

Wuraola Okuwobi
Programme Associate

Quddus Busari
Programme Associate

Panagiotis Karvounis
Communications Associate

Amanda Kahunzire
Communications Associate

Maxine Chikumbo
Communications Associate

Yasmin Khalafallah
Communications Associate

ADVISORY BOARD

Professor Howard Alper (Chair)

Distinguished Professor, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

Howard Alper currently spearheads the initiative by the Governor General of Canada (Head of State) aimed at promoting global recognition for Canadian research excellence. He is chairs the Canvassing Committee for the initiative. He is also Distinguished University Professor at the University of Ottawa. His basic research spans organic and inorganic chemistry, with potential applications in the pharmaceutical, petrochemical, and commodity chemical industries.

From his research, Alper has discovered new reactions using homogeneous, phase transfer, and heterogeneous catalysis (e.g. clays, dendrimers). He has also used chiral ligands in metal catalyzed cycloaddition and carbonylation reactions, and succeeded in preparing valuable products in pharmacologically active form. He has published 551 papers, has thirty-seven patents, and has edited several books.

Alper is a recipient of numerous prestigious Fellowships including the E.W.R. Steacie (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, NSERC, 1980‑82), Guggenheim (1985‑86), and Killam (1986‑88) Fellowships. Major awards to his credit include the Alcan Award for Inorganic Chemistry (1986), Bader Award for Organic Chemistry (1990), Steacie Award for Chemistry (1993), all of the Canadian Society for Chemistry. The Chemical Institute of Canada has presented Alper with the Catalysis Award (1984), the Montreal Medal (2003), and the CIC Medal (1997), its highest honour. He also received the Urgel‑Archambault Prize (ACFAS) in physical sciences and engineering.
In 2000, the Governor General of Canada presented him with the first Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal in Science and Engineering. The following year, he was given the National Merit Award for contributions to the Life Sciences. Two years later, he received the Le Sueur Memorial Award of the Society of Chemical Industry (U.K.). In 2004, he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Chemical Research Society of India, in 2006, an Honorary Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada, and in March 2013, was made an Honorary Foreign Member of the Chemical Society of Japan(CSJ), the first Canadian ever to be so honoured by the CSJ. He was also elected a Honorary Member of the Colombian Academy of Sciences in 2011, and of the Mexican Academy of Sciences in 2009.

Alper has served on a number of NSERC committees (e.g. Committee on Research Grants), and as Chair of Boards and Committees including the Partnership Group for Science and Engineering (PAGSE), Council of Canadian Academies, Canadian Research Knowledge Network, and the Steacie Institute of Molecular Sciences, among others. He was also Visiting Executive at the International Development Research Centre during 2006-2010.

In 1996, Alper was appointed in 1996 as a Titular Member of the European Academy of Arts, Sciences, and Humanities, and in 2003 as a member of TWAS-the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World. He was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1999, and in 2002 he received the award of Officer, National Order of Merit, by the President of the Republic of France. In 2012, he received the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal. In 2014, President Napolitano of the Republic of Italy, bestowed the award of Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic to Alper, He was named President of the Royal Society of Canada for a two-year term commencing November 2001, and was its Foreign Secretary from 2004-2010. In 2004, he was elected to a three-year term as Co-Chair of the InterAmerican Network of Academies of Science (IANAS). In December 2006, he was elected Co-Chair of IAP: The Global Network of Science Academies, for a three-year term, and in January, 2010, was re-elected to a second three year term as Co-Chair. In 2010, he was also appointed to the U.S. National Science Foundation Advisory Committee for International Science and Engineering, to the Science Advisory Committee of the World Economic Forum, to the Board of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences-Next Einstein Initiative, to the Advisory Board of the Global Young Academy, and as Vice-Chair of the RIKEN Advisory Council. In 2011, he was elected as Chair of the International Advisory Board of the Knowledge Economy Network headquartered in Brussels. In 2015, he was appointed to the Board of the ambitious Smart Villages initiative. On June 13, 2007, he was appointed inaugural Chair of the Government of Canada’s Science, Technology and Innovation Council (STIC) which provides advice to Cabinet and the Prime Minister on science, technology and innovation issues, and the Council also issues a State of the Nation reports every two years benchmarking Canada’s performance on a global basis. The inaugural report was released in May, 2009, the second report appeared in June, 2011, the third report was released in May, 2013, and the latest report appeared in 2015. In December, 2012, the Government of Canada reappointed him to a third term as Chair of the STIC. He completed eight years as Chair of STIC by the end of his third term in May, 2015

He is passionate about Canada, research and chocolate.

Prof. Emanuela Colombo

UNESCO Chair on Energy for Sustainable Development

Prof. Adeola Adenikinju

Director, Centre for Petroleum, Energy Economics and Law (CPEEL), University of Ibadan, Nigeria

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