Professor Olubukola Oluranti Babalola (Pr.Sci.Nat., MRSSAF, MASSAF, FTWAS, FAS, FAAS), the Vice-President of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and Vice-President of the Organisation for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) (Africa region), is an NRF-rated scientist, an MBA graduate, a Research Director, and a Principal Investigator at North-West University. After a PhD with a fellowship from the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and OWSD, she had postdoctoral experiences at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, and the University of the Western Cape, South Africa.
She has over 21 years of experience focusing on rhizosphere metagenomics. She is a member of many editorial boards and an international advisor to several others. Olubukola has over 350 publications, an H-index of 60, and has completed the supervision of 34 doctoral fellows and 25 masters. She enjoys research grants and international partnerships across the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania.
Her efforts has received many awards, including being a finalist in GenderInSite 2020 and Clarivate’s highly cited research top 1% for field years 2022 and 2023. Her recent Springer book is “Food Security and Safety: Africa’s Perspective.” Olubukola is #1 in Africa for soil science and plant nutrition.