
Folasade M. Olajuyigbe is the President of the Women’s Dignity Initiative Inc. Board of Trustees and Founder of the nonprofit organization.
She has 15 years’ work experience in teaching and research in Applied Biochemistry, supervising graduate and undergraduate projects and mentoring younger women in science. She is a Senior Lecturer of Biochemistry and leads a research group in Enzyme Biotechnology and Environmental Health in Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. She is an active member of the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World and Professional Member of the New York academy of Sciences where she serves as a mentor to STEM-focused high school girls.
Folasade is a Fulbright Senior Scholar at Rutgers University, New Jersey (2017-2018). She has always been distinguished for academic and career excellence through the several awards, research grants and fellowships she has won since the beginning of her teaching and research career in Biochemistry. Notable among these are the prestigious International Foundation for Science Sweden Research (IFS) Grants 1 and 2 (2004; 2011), Schlumberger Faculty for the Future Fellowship for PhD study in Biocrystallography at the University of Trieste, Italy (2006-2008), Elsevier Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics Young Investigator Award (2008), Junior Associate Award of The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy (2009-2014), Schlumberger Faculty for the Future Fellowship for postdoctoral study in University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA (2011-2012), Nature Research Travel Grantee (2011), FUTA Excellence and Productivity Award 2011 (Vice Chancellor’s Special Recognition for Research), Extended Junior Associate Award, ICTP, Trieste, Italy; Extended (2014 – 2016).
Having attended several international and national conferences where she made presentations of her research findings in HIV Drug Discovery, Enzyme Biotechnology and Environmental Health, Folasade has also served as invited speaker, panelist and discussion facilitator on many international forums encouraging more participation and visibility of women in sciences. She serves as reviewer for many peer reviewed international Journals and has published about 35 research articles in refereed journals of high impact factor.
Folasade holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria as a split-site program with the University of Trieste, Italy, a Master’s degree (M.Tech.) in Applied Biochemistry from same institution, a B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of Lagos, Nigeria and MBA from the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria.
She loves God and she mentors younger women in the church as a member of Mothers’ Union the Akure Diocese, Anglican Communion-Church of Nigeria. She is also a pioneer member of the Cathedral Jewels of Christ, Cathedral Church of St. David, Akure, Nigeria, a non-profit women ministry that started operations in 1999 and makes annual donations to orphanages and leper colony in Akure, Nigeria.
With her career journey so far, she uses every opportunity she has to encourage girls and women out there that they can be distinguished for excellence in Science regardless of their status, backgrounds and locations.
Folasade is happily married with children.