Brief Biography
Wole Soboyejo received a BSc in mechanical engineering from King’s College London in 1985. He then went on to Cambridge University where he obtained his PhD in materials science in 1988. Between 1988 and 1992, he worked as a Research Scientist at the McDonnell Douglas Research Labs. In 1992, he worked briefly at the Edison Welding Institute before joining the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at The Ohio State University, where he worked from 1992 until 1999. Between 1997 and 1998, he spent a year as a Visiting Martin Luther King Associate Professor at MIT. He then moved to Princeton University as a Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in 1999. At Princeton, he has served as the Director of the US/Africa Materials Institute (USAMI) and the interdisciplinary undergraduate program in materials science. Soboyejo is the recipient of National Young Investigator Awards from the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research. He is also a recipient of the ASM’s Bradley Stoughton Award for excellence in the teaching of materials science, the Lumley Research Award of The Ohio State University, and Princeton University’s Old School Award for Innovation. Soboyejo is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS), the African Academy of Science, and the Materials Society of Nigeria. He is the author of 3 textbooks and more than 370 peer-reviewed journal papers. He has also edited 20 special issues of journals and conference proceedings. Between 2012 and 2014, Soboyejo served as the President and Provost of the African University of Science and Technology in Abuja, Nigeria. In September of 2016, Soboyejo moved to the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) as the Bernard M. Gordon Dean of Engineering and Professor of Engineering Leadership. His current research focuses on biomaterials, materials for energy and multifunctional materials for sustainable development.