UI don wins 2020 West Africa Science Communication award

A Criminologist and Communication Expert, Dr Oludayo Tade, has won the 2020 maiden edition of the West Africa Science Communication Awards (WASCA).

Our correspondent reports that the inaugural award was presented virtually to Tade on Tuesday, who is of the Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan, by The Conversation Africa.

While announcing the winners, Candice Bailey and Pfungwa Nyamukachi of The Conversation headquarters in South Africa, stated that out of the five awards presented at this year’s edition, Nigerian scholars clinched three while two went to Ghanaian scholars.

He said that the organisation awarded researchers who had made the most dissemination of their researches and engaged with the site between November 2019 and October 2020.

He said that the award distribution showed that public university scholars, despite the ongoing strike, had been active in their scholarly outputs and engagements by dominating the awards.

It was reported that while Tade won the first prize, the second position went to the Executive Secretary, the Nigerian Academy of Science, Dr Doyin Odubanjo.

Our correspondent also reports that Tade’s most read article on The Conversation Africa was based on his research into electronic banking frauds in Nigeria.

The third position was a tie among Dr Lanre Ikuteyijo of Sociology and Anthropology Department, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Dr Emmanuel Akindele of Zoology Department, OAU and Prof. Sheriff Folarin Political Science and International Relations Department, Covenant University, Ota.

The top prize for Ghanaian scholars went to Alexander Kofi-Preko of the University of Professional Studies, Accra, Ghana and Prof. Robert Hinson of the University of Ghana Business School.

The second prize was a tie between Dr Lewis Abedi of Asante Kumasi Technical University, Kumasi and Kabila Abbas of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi.

In his remarks, Adejuwon Soyinka, Regional Editor (West Africa), The Conversation Africa (TCA), stated that the awards were to “recognise and celebrate West African authors and signpost them as engagement between the town and gown.

“They have allowed their research to make impact. We are celebrating authors who have written for us and encourage others to expose their research to the world and make impact.

“We are encouraging more women scholars to share their researches with the world. We hope we will have women awardees in the 2021 edition,” Soyinka said.

Earlier, the General Manager of TCA, Alexandra Storey, stated that the body was a global network dedicated to democratising knowledge by working with researchers to produce evidence-based media contents to critical stakeholders.

He appreciated the authors who had continued to ensure that their researches got disseminated to enrich the world and provide solutions.

It was reported that TCA is one of the world’s leading publishers of research-based news and analysis to researchers in the West Africa sub-region.