The first professor of Nuclear Science in Nigeria, Ibrahim H. Umar, is dead.
Umar, who was also a Vice Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano (BUK), on Monday night.
His son, Farouk Ibrahim Umar, confirmed the development, saying the burial ceremony would hold at the Emir of Kano’s Palace, by 10 a.m. on Tuesday.
Umar served as the VC of BUK between 1979 and 1986 as the third head of the institution.
He was the first Nigerian academic in physics to teach at the university in 1976.
He was a member of the Nigerian delegation to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) General Conference from 1989 and was appointed Director-General of the Energy Commission of Nigeria in 1989.
He served as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the IAEA for 2000-2001 and was in 2004 the Director of the Centre for Energy Research and Training, where the first Nigerian research nuclear reactor is located.
His last known appointment was in 2007 when he was on the international advisory committee for the international workshop on Renewable Energy for Sustainable Development in Africa, held at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
The VC of BUK, Professor Sagir Abbas, expressed sadness and condoled with the entire university community, saying the deceased laid a good foundation during his stewardship as the head of the university and was very instrumental to the second phase of university’s development, particularly the new site campus.
