The University of Port Harcourt is renowned for attracting some of the best academics in the Country and beyond, whose research impact and success earn them various patents, awards, honours, and prizes. The University of Port Harcourt School of Graduate Studies is an epitome of learning and research. The commencement of graduate studies took off in the 1979/1980 academic session. However, the school of graduate studies (SGS) was formally established in October 1982 and has 12 Faculties as at January 2023 which includes the Faculty of Law. In the period under review the School of Graduate Studies graduated a number of MScs and PhDs but the details are not immediately available on account of the very long industrial action by ASUU and other unions in the University and the inability of Senate to sit to formally approve these results.

Also, within the period under review, the University of Port Harcourt first maintained its previous position in the world university ranking on Webometrics Ranking System of 6th in 2021 to 5th in Nigeria.

Good things they say come to those who wait, but it is also true that fortune favors the bold. That is why this timely report of some staff members who have shown courage and boldness in attracting global recognitions to the University of Port Harcourt even in the face of adversity is inevitable. Some of the staff members mostly academic scholars cutting across various Departments, Faculties and Centers in the University have beyond reasonable doubt shown capacity in maximizing available resources to aid research and publications.

As an entrepreneurial university where both cognitive and soft skills are promoted, the office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research and Development beams the searchlight on twelve of the most recently recorded global awards, scholarships, partnerships and mentions added to the growing list of research discoveries.

We begin with Professor Nenibarini Zabbey of the Department of Fisheries and Wild Life, Faculty of Agriculture, who was recently named the 2022 recipient of the Association of the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) Ruth Patrick Awards. According to the awarding body, Professor Zabbey now becomes the first African to win the prestigious ASLO Ruth Patrick Award. Professor Zabbey has fostered international ties with the University of Port Harcourt due to his unique combination of scientific skills, endurance, and academic excellence in fighting for environmental justice.

In the same vein, a Professor of Educational Statistics at the University of Port Harcourt, Peter James Kpolovie was recently named the 2022 Science/Nature/Environment Book finalist by three international bodies. The award adds to his very rich pedigree in consistently winning international awards from 2017 to 2023 for his contributions to Science, Statistics, Research, Information and Communication Technology. This globally sought-after researcher is celebrated among many things for filling major knowledge gaps in application of statistics analytical tools in education.

Worthy of note is Professor Bourdillon O. Omijeh, who continues to set the pace with his numerous local and international research breakthroughs. Going by the realities of the growing and emerging technologies and the need to seek designs as well as device systems of communication at a distance, Professor Omijeh is one whose interest has birthed the creation of several engineering software applications. Currently the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) – Professorial Chair occupant in the University of Port Harcourt, where he is also the Director, Centre for Information and Telecommunication Engineering (CITE), this award-winning Professor of Electronic and Communication Engineering, is the winner of the 2022 European Union Erasmus Project Grant for the University. The award according to the issuing body, earns him the appointment as the National Coordinator of European Union (EU)-Erasmus Project for Nigerian Tertiary Institutions in partnership with the University of Siegen, Germany.

Making waves in Molecular Genetics and Cytotaxonomy is Professor Julian Onyewuonyeoma Osuji. A co-Chair, African BioGenome Project; the Chair of Genomics for the conservation of endangered and endemic species Grand Challenge, Digital Innovation in Africa for Agri-Environment and Conservation. Professor Osuji who is a pure-bred University of Port Harcourt Alumnus, is currently Director, Regional Centre for Biotechnology and Bioresources Research & NABDA South-South Zonal CoE; Principal Investigator & Team Leader, IB4 BioNet; and NAS Fastlane Administrator for the University of Port Harcourt. Prof Osuji is the first researcher in the University to have an article published in Nature.

Although women Scientists continue to lead ground-breaking research across the world, only about 33.3 per cent gain the deserved recognition. But that is not the case of Professor Chioma Blaise Chikere who has no limits in shattering the glass ceiling. Professor Chikere has recently been made a Council Member and a senior country Ambassador, International Society for Microbial Ecology (ISME) Wageningen, Netherlands (2022 – 2026), alongside the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) Africa from 2022 – 2024. Blaise-Chikere is a professor in the Department of Microbiology, and the Director of the Entrepreneurial Centre at the University of Port Harcourt.

Meanwhile, as the world hurtles towards a future threatened by climate change and resource scarcity, the global scientific community has chosen to recognize and promote women scientists’ achievements which is the reason why yet another amazon and a 2022 John Maddox Prize winner, Dr. Eucharia Oluchi Nwaichi makes it to the list of women in science for her passion in Science Communication, monitoring and understanding the quality of soil, climate change, science diplomacy and evidence-informed policymaking. A dedication that has so far earned her global acclaim and international research grants from organizations like the BW Offshore, UNESCO, Association of Commonwealth Universities, William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, Royal Society of Chemistry, British University in Egypt, Commonwealth Scholarship Commission UK and many more. She reserves the spotlight as first African to ever clinch the John Maddox Prize.

On her part, famous for her design and fabrication of Nigeria's first hydrate flow loop, Dr. Toyin Olabisi Odutola is another force to reckon with as she never settles for residue. She has shown resilience in her knowledge in Flow Assurance at the Center for Hydrate Research at the Colorado School of Mines, USA and currently boasts of two patents, published monograph and several papers in reputable peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Odutola is currently a Senior lecturer at the Department of Petroleum and Gas Engineering and Assistant Director at Emerald Energy Institute, a recipient of various internationally funded scholarships like the World Bank Institute (WBI), Nelson Mandela Institute (NMI), and the 2020 visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a fellow of the MIT Empowering the Teachers Programme (MIT-ETT), all in the United States of America.

For his recent 2022 research breakthrough in Ecology, awarded by the Ecological Society of America, Dr Aroloye Ofo Numbere, puts the University of Port Harcourt on the scheme of things as an eco-friendly University. Currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Animal and Environmental Biology at the University of Port Harcourt where he has a thriving career in teaching and research on waste management, environmental impact assessment, biotechnology, ecology, and biology courses. This fellow has served and maintains affiliations with several professional organizations and is certified in university teaching skills by Saint Louis University, and as an Oracle professional by Oracle University.

On global contributions to Petroleum & Gas Engineering, Dr Amieibibama Joseph stands out as winner of the prestigious SPE International Presidential Outstanding Award, Houston, Texas 2022, making him an envy of the global community. It is no doubt that his professional expertise is part of the many reasons he continues to secure a space and serving in different capacities at the Society of Petroleum Engineers both nationally and internationally. He is a member of the SPE International Production & Operations Award Committee, Dallas, Texas USA.

Another researcher worthy of mention is Dr. Ogheneruona Ruona Diemuodeke whose area of interest is renewable and zero/low-carbon energy technology, deep decarbonization and environmental sustainability, with major outputs in clean cooking/cooling, low-grade energy conversion systems and carbon capture technology. Dr. Diemuodeke who is currently working on Nigeria’s deep-decarbonization pathways under the Department of Climate Change, Federal Ministry of Environment and funded by the French Development Agency, this prodigious Associate Professor of Energy and Thermofluids in the Department of Mechanical Engineering a beneficiary of numerous internationally funded research grants on energy access and productive uses in rural communities and is co-author of a paper published in Nature Energy.

The ability to describe the world through an honest and unfiltered lens remains the motive of creative writers like Dr. Obari Gomba with the Faculty of Humanities. Zealous, courageous and unshaking, Dr. Gomba has bagged numerous awards and recently got appointed as member of the AFREXTRACT Project of the University of Groningen (Netherlands) and the European Research Council from 2022 to 2027. This honorary fellow in writing of the University of Iowa (USA), the TORCH Global South Visiting Professor and Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, University of Oxford (UK), is no doubt a distinguished writer. A two-time recipient of the Association of Nigerian Authors Poetry Prize award, winner AWA Prize for African Poetry (2022), Rivers ANA Distinguished Writer Award (2016), this literary enthusiast has shown tenacity in the face of adversity.

For Dr. Charles Ezekoye volunteering in rendering selfless services to humanity through numerous awareness campaigns like the breast cancer community Development Service and Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS Prevention is definitely the fastest way to reach out to the teeming global population. This Ph.D holder in the Department of Microbiology, Dr, Ezekoye, is a prolific author with an outstanding intellectual character and an award winner at the 2018 15th Gathering of the African Initiative Group (AIG) by the American Society for Microbiology General Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.