By George George Idowu
A world-renowned climate scientist, Professor Jimmy Adegoke, has retired from the University of Missouri, Kansas-City (UMKC) after 25 years as a faculty member and distinguished academic leader.
His final transitioning to Nigeria was celebrated as a huge gain for Africa by friends and associates who hosted him to an impressive dinner in Lagos themed “Retire to Refire”.
The award winning climate consultant, who explained that while it would be a good thing for him to just go and rest with his family, said it wouldn’t be a good idea for the African continent as the work is far from over.
He said: While it would be nice to spend the rest of my life on a beach somewhere, that is not the plan for Nigeria and indeed Africa.
“I have now transitioned back to Africa to fully and more intentionally contribute my quota to the daunting but necessary task of finding a higher path for the continent,” he said.
Prof Adegoke, who disclosed that he was happy to deploy his expertise to the service of motherland, said he has been working with African Development Bank (AfDB) for the past four years as an advisor and senior consultant in the climate change and green growth department of the bank.
Until his retirement, the renowned professor was a tenured faculty member at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) where he served as Chair of the Department of Geosciences from 2008 to 2010 and Director of the UMKC Center for Applied Environmental Research (CAER).
Prof. Adegoke is an award winning climate scientist and globally recognized environmental leader whose work cuts across science, climate policy, environmental governance, and cross-institutional capacity building.
An eminent member of the Advisory Board of NatureNews, Prof Adegoke is a international consultant, whose research grants has been funded by agencies such as NASA, US National Science Foundation (NSF), and the AfDB.
He served as Interim Executive Director/CEO of the West African Science Service Center for Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) from April to December 2017 and was previously Executive Director of the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) Natural Resources & Environment (NRE) Division, Pretoria, South Africa from 2010 to 2012.
At the invitation of the Government of Nigeria, Professor Adegoke served as Chair of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Agricultural Resilience in Nigeria (ACARN), which developed a national program on climate adaption and agricultural resilience for Nigeria in 2014.
He sits on multiple international science advisory boards/committees and maintains permanent residence in Kansas City where he was an appointee of the Mayor of Kansas City Missouri (KCMO) on the city’s Environmental Management Commission (EMC).
Prof Adegoke was named “Inspiring Leader of the Year” by the University of Ibadan Alumni Global Network and a “125th Anniversary Fellow” of the College of Earth & Mineral Sciences (EMS) at The Pennsylvania State University, USA where he obtained his doctorate degree.
He was inducted into the Ahmadu Bello Universtity (ABU), Zaria Nigeria Hall of Fame in 2021 as one of the “110 Most Powerful ABU Alumni.”