Kenyan Professor Feted Second Highest British Empire Award

[ad_1]

Kenyan-born Professor Robert Mokaya has been awarded the second-highest-ranking British award by Queen Elizabeth II.

Professor Mokaya was feted with the Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his outstanding service at the University of Nottingham.

Mokaya who is a professor of Chemistry at the University of Nottingham also doubles up as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Global Engagement at the institution.

The OBE award is the second highest ranking Order of the British Empire award, behind CBE but ahead of MBE. It aims at recognizing British excellence to individuals who impact greatly in their line of work.

“This is an unexpected honour. I am however very pleased that the work that I and many colleagues, including my students past and present, have done over the years has been recognized in this manner. I recognise that this honour would not have been possible without the support of my wife, Edna, and my family to whom I am particularly thankful,” Prof Mokaya said while receiving the award.

The University University of Nottingham described Mokaya as a role model and mentor to black academics and students in the UK, being the only black professor of Chemistry in the country.

“As a founding member of the RSC Pan Africa Chemistry Network, he has helped to vastly improve African chemists’ access to, and the impact of, chemical knowledge in countries across the continent,” the University said in a statement.

“Robert’s work has been instrumental in developing affordable energy solutions, strengthening and building capacity through the £1.2 million RS/DFID Capacity Building in Energy Storage Materials programme. Robert has continued his research along this path through EPSRC-funded schemes to provide bio-rural energy in Ghana and GCRF-funded safe and affordable low energy cooking solutions for South Africa and Namibia.”

Prof Mokaya heads up a world-leading research group on sustainable energy materials and valorisation of carbon feedstocks and publishing 175 articles with more than 13,000 citations. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry as well as a being a current Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award holder.

Following his achievements, Kenyans have since joined in to congratulate him.

“Congratulations to Professor Robert Mokaya who has been awarded an OBE in the UK New Year Honours for services to the chemical sciences,” Kenyan High Commissioner to the UK Manoah Esipisu wrote on social media.

“Sincere congratulations to Prof. Robert Mokaya on receiving the well deserved Order of the British Empire (OBE) Award in recognition of contributions made in material chemistry research and a successful lecturing career at @UniofNottingham.

“Hongera, you have made us Flag of Kenya proud,” Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i stated.

The post Kenyan Professor Feted Second Highest British Empire Award appeared first on LitKenya.

[ad_2]

Source link