About Me

Citizenship:          USA (Naturalized)

Nationality:          Nigerian American

Hobbies:               Swimming, travelling, reading & listening to music

I was born in the bustling city of Lagos, Nigeria. I completed my Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, and postdoctoral research at the US Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA). I have conducted research at Harvard University, Cornell University and Naval Research Laboratories.

Although I became passionate about Chemistry during my undergraduate years, I never planned to go into academic profession. After receiving my bachelor’s degree in chemistry, my professors suggested that I should enter into a PhD program. I decided to earn my Master’s degree first, because I was actually unsure of whether the career paths that came out of a doctoral study appealed to me, despite my love of chemistry itself. I eventually decided to pursue a PhD after realizing that, working at the Nigerian Institute for Oceanography & Marine Research (NIOMR) where I was employed as a Research Scientist, one could not be a successful researcher without a PhD degree. I enjoy applying my knowledge of Chemistry to solve real-life problems. In that sense, I was not the traditional academic. I just wanted to tackle real-life problems and to find ways to apply my research experience to address the problems at hand. This was my main motivation for enrolling in a PhD in Chemistry and this has continued to form the basis of the research that I do till this day. 

I am married to Abiodun “Abi” Sadik, a broadcast engineer and we have three children--Adeola "Ade", Ademola "Dem" and Olaolu "Ola." Ade is a board-certified anesthesiologist currently completing her Medical Fellowship in Critical Care at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD. She received her Bachelors in Chemistry from the University of  Pittsburgh and her Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the same university. Ade completed her medical residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA. Dem is currently an MBA student at Harvard Business School. He earned his Juris Doctor (JD) degree from Yale Law School and his Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the University of Maryland at College Park. Ola is in Middle School at Vestal, NY; he enjoys interstellar space technology and is learning to write computer code.

When I'm not writing scientific papers, or proposals, or teaching, you can find me swimming, pleasure reading, travelling, or listening to music. Abi and I are very active in our local church. I enjoy the opportunity to mentor and impact the development of career scientists—from the crucial undergraduate years through the doctoral and post-doctoral levels. I have had the opportunity to supervise several graduate students, many of whom have secured faculty positions in leading universities around the world. Others are employed in the industries and national laboratories in the United States and around the world.

As the President and Co-Founder of SNO (www.susnano.org), I am helping to build support for nanotechnology as a sustainability science, and in promoting the understanding of its wider relevance to society. I love to reach out to women, junior faculty, and students from all walks of life.