The Greatest African Scientist Of All Time

Philip Emeagwali was born on the 23rd of August 1954, to James Nnaemeka Emeagwali and Agatha Iyanma Emeagwali. He is a Nigerian computer scientist that was born in Akure, Ondo State. He even served as a child soldier during the Nigerian Civil war, but this didn’t stop him from chasing his dreams.

Philip is one of the founding founders of the internet, but he didn’t do this alone. He is well respected in world of computer scientists. Growing up in a country that was being torn apart by a civil war, Emeagwali lived in a building that was crumbled with rocket shells. He believed that his intellect was the only thing that could get him out of the line of fire, and it did.

So he studied hard and eventually received a scholarship to the Oregon State University when he was 17 years old. He obtained a BS in mathematics from this school. He also earned three other degrees – A Ph.D in scientific computing from the University of Michigan, and two masters degrees from George Washington University.

In Michigan, he participated in the scientific community debate on how to simulate the detection of oil reservoirs using a supercomputer. Growing up in an oil rich nation, he understood how oil is drilled , so he decided to use it as the subject of his doctoral dissertation. This was how his journey to greatness began.

Philip Emeagwali was voted as the 35th greatest African of all time, this was based on a survey that was conducted by the New African Magazine, they announced him on the 26th of August, 2004. Emeagwali also ranked as the greatest African Scientist ever. He first entered into limelight in the year 1989 when he won the prestigious Gordon Bell Prize for his work with massively parallel computers. He programmed the connection machine to compute world record 3.1 billion calculations per second using 65,536 processors to simulate oil reservoirs. With over 41 inventions submitted to the U.S, He won the price of $1000 and became the greatest African Scientist of all time.

Former USA president Bill Clinton took note of this great man and called him an example of what Nigerians can achieve is they are given the opportunity. Emeagwali is always a special guest speaker at events all over the world.