Chiamaka Okoli
Chiamaka Okoli (1987–2019)[1] was a Nigerian astrophysicist whose research involved dark matter, cosmic neutrinos, and their interactions.[2][3]
Early life
[edit]Okoli was born in Bauchi State, Nigeria, in 1987, the fifth of seven children in a Catholic Igbo family who had relocated there in the early 1970s, in the wake of the Nigerian Civil War. Her father owned a busing company and her mother worked as a schoolteacher. She was educated in a unity school, a multi-ethnic boarding school. After ethnic violence flared up in the 2000s in Bauchi, the family moved again to Awka-Etiti, and Okoli became a student of physics at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka (UNN). Despite some thoughts of transferring to medicine, she stayed in physics with the encouragement of Daniel Obiora, a physics professor at the university.[4]
Higher education and PhD
[edit]After earning a diploma from the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy,[5] studying there with Ravi K. Sheth,[4] Okoli came to the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada, in 2012, as part of Perimeter Scholars International, a master's program at the institute.[5] After completing the program in 2014,[2] she continued her studies at the Perimeter Institute and the University of Waterloo, jointly advised by Perimeter Institute cosmologist Niayesh Afshordi and University of Waterloo astrophysicist James Taylor,[5] and continuing through the birth of her son in 2017.[3] She successfully defended her doctoral thesis in December 2018, and was scheduled to receive a diploma in June 2019.[5]
Illness and death
[edit]Instead, she suffered a series of two cerebral aneurysms, the first in February 2018 and the second, fatal one in June 2019.[3][4]
References
[edit]- ^ "Chiamaka Okoli", AstroGen, American Astronomical Society, retrieved 2023-08-02
- ^ a b "Farewell to Dr. Chiamaka Okoli", Physics & Astronomy News, University of Waterloo, June 19, 2019, retrieved 2023-08-02
- ^ a b c Afshordi, Niayesh (June 18, 2019), Farewell to Dr Chiamaka Okoli, retrieved 2023-08-02
- ^ a b c Okwuosa, Ashley (September 20, 2021), "Chiamaka Okoli was a rarity in physics; she challenged norms until her untimely death", Broadview, retrieved 2023-08-02
- ^ a b c d Perimeter mourns the passing of Chiamaka Okoli a brilliant rising star in cosmology, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, June 14, 2019, retrieved 2023-08-02
