Space and Life Matters with Funmilola: Biography of Funmilola

BIOGRAPHY OF FUNMILOLA

Funmilola Oluwafemi is a space bio-scientist, an astrobiologist and currently an Assistant Chief Scientific Officer with the Space Agency of Nigeria – National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) at the Space Life Sciences Division. She is the Principal Investigator and the Leading Expert of the Microgravity Research. Funmilola Oluwafemi has an academic background of Biochemistry (BSc Biochemistry; MSc Membrane Biochemistry and Biotechnology). She has had collaboration in research and education with United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) in the Zero-Gravity Instrument Project.

She has several academic and moral awards with publications in several reputable high impact peer-reviewed international scientific journals and magazines as regards space life sciences in relation to the solutions on the risks on space explorers, concerning their physiology and psycho-sociology that encompasses their health and wellbeing. This include farming, food, and nutrition in extreme environments for food security, and climate smart agriculture. Awards and honors she has received include in fellowships, post-graduate scholarships, research travel grant, election into professional science academy, conference scholarships, training scholarship, publication award, organizer of international conferences, moderator at United Nations (international) conference, research and teaching award (equipment award), government award and institution/university award. She is an editorial board member of several journals. She is a winner of the: 2022 Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship; 2021 African-German Network of Excellence in Science, Program Advocating Women in Science (AGNES-PAWS) grant winner; and 2021 United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization – International Centre for Biotechnology (UNESCO-ICB) PhD Scholarship Award: The Maiden Edition, Nsukka, Nigeria. She won Round 4 Climate, Food and Farming Global-Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse-Gases Development Scholarships (CLIFF-GRADS) program on food-security; and was a mentor in “The 1000Girls, 1000Futures” program to engage young-women interested in STEM advance their pursuit of STEM careers as recruited by Global STEM Alliance for The New York Academy of Sciences. Funmilola is a Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) Alumni where she was one of the founder of the Space Medicine and Life Sciences (SMLS) Project Group and the Lead of the Space Environment Working Group; having diversity of experiences in STEM and a working knowledge with youth, influencing them for positive-change and impart. She has attended diverse United Nations Conferences/ Workshops/ Symposia/ Fora in Paris, France (2022); Vienna, Austria (2019); Graz, Austria (2018); Bonn, Germany (2018); Dubai, United Arabs Emirate (UAE) (2017); at International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) Conference in Trieste, Italy (2018) and as a research fellow of CLIFF-GRADS at the College of Agriculture, Hawassa University, Hawassa, Ethiopia. Funmilola has delivered a great number of papers in many academic conferences/ workshops in-person globally.

Sequel to these, in-line with her scientific research ambitions, core to her career path, with wealth of experiences, she engages in knowledge transfer to her sub-ordinates, colleagues, students/interns; and her joy would be seeing them successful advancing in this field, and developing curricula to train others. Funmilola therefore involve in policy-driven publications/patents leading to adoption of practice, driving positive-change around the globe as an educationist, researcher, writer and a counsellor on this related matter. Her training includes women and girls on how to be empowered for self-reliance; to cope during challenge periods. She is the Founder and President of “Funafo Innovations Promotion Foundation for Women and Youths”.