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Dr. Nosa Egiebor Joins ESF as Provost, Executive VP
Dr. Nosa Egiebor, who most recently served as chief international officer and professor of chemical engineering at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi, joins ESF today (May 15) as provost and executive vice president.
ESF President Quentin Wheeler said Egiebor brings to the College a wealth of administrative experience, an impressive background in engineering, and a unique strength and perspective in international collaborations.
"I am delighted to have Dr. Egiebor join our leadership team," Wheeler said. "He sees global engagement as an effective avenue for preparing students to be functional leaders in the economy of the 21st century. His perspective and experience in this area will be an invaluable asset to ESF as our students learn to address the environmental challenges that face the world."
"I am truly excited and humbled to be selected as the next provost and executive vice president at ESF," Egiebor said. "This is the pre-eminent environmental education and research institution in the United States. At a time when serious environmental problems represent prominent global grand challenges, it is my pleasure to join the leadership team of this outstanding institution whose mission is aimed at addressing such challenges through education, research and community service."
Egiebor succeeds Dr. Valerie A. Luzadis, who served as interim provost and executive vice president for the last two years. Luzadis will spend the next year working on special strategic projects in support of ESF including serving as a senior fellow with the National Council for Science and the Environment in Washington, D.C., and as a visiting scholar at the Universidad Autónoma de Occidente in Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia. She will pursue new partnerships for the College with other institutions, such as the Universidad Autónoma de Occidente, University of Puerto Rico and others. Her efforts are specifically designed to increase national and international visibility for ESF, and expand the College's network of partner academic and non-governmental institutions.
"I speak for the entire ESF community in thanking Dr. Valerie Luzadis for her outstanding service as interim provost and executive vice president," Wheeler said. "She has provided steady and visionary academic leadership for the College while at the same time leading an initiative to set ESF on solid financial footing and astutely defining the role of executive vice president that did not previously exist."
Egiebor is a registered professional engineer with more than 32 years of experience in higher education. He holds a Ph.D. in metallurgical engineering from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, with specialization in environmental technology development for mineral resource exploitation and utilization, and reaction engineering for water and wastewater treatment. He also holds an M.S. in chemical metallurgy from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom and a B.S. in industrial chemistry from the University of Benin in Nigeria.
He served from 1985 to 1996 on the faculty of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. Between 1996 and 2014, Egiebor was engaged at Tuskegee University in Alabama under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy. At Tuskegee, he led the development of the environmental engineering degree program and held the U.S. Department of Energy's Samuel P. Massie Professorial Chair of Excellence. He also served as director of environmental engineering and science, and was appointed vice president for international education and research between 2012 and 2014. He joined the University of Mississippi in 2014 as senior international officer, executive director of global engagement and professor of chemical engineering. He has also served as visiting professor at several international institutions.
Egiebor is a member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Science Advisory Board and the recipient of numerous national and international awards, including the U.S. Department of Energy Award for Outstanding Research and Educational Accomplishments, the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship in Germany and the U.S. Fulbright Scholar award.
His research focuses on the areas of industrial water and wastewater treatment, biomass conversion for activated carbon and biofuel production, solidification for low-level radioactive waste treatment, and mining and milling waste management. He has been principal investigator and director for several multimillion-dollar research projects funded with grants and contracts from agencies such as the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, the United States Agency for International Development, the Office of Naval Research and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He has published more than 130 scholarly articles and delivered numerous invited lectures and oral presentations at national and international conferences around the world.