Prof Folasade Ogunsola has been appointed the first female Vice Chancellor of University of Lagos (UNILAG).

Ogunsola emerged the best among the seven candidates shortlisted for the top job.

Among those shortlisted were Abayomi Akinyeye of the Department of History, Faculty of Arts; Folasade Ogunsola of the College of Medicine; Mathew Ilori and Adeyinka Adekunle both of the Department of Microbiology and Botany, Faculty of Sciences; Imran Smith, Faculty of Law; Timothy Nubi, Department of Estate Management at the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, and Ayo Olowe of the Department of Finance, Faculty of Management Sciences.

PROFILE

Born in 1958, Ogunsola is a professor of Medical Microbiology and a consultant clinical microbiologist and infection control at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital.

She specializes in disease control, particularly HIV/AIDS. Ogunsola was provost of College of Medicine. She was also the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Development Services) of the institution between 2017 and 2021.

She was elected as the acting vice chancellor of University of Lagos on 24 August 2020, by the university’s senate.

Folasade Tolulope Ogunsola was raised at the University of Ibadan where her father, Akin Mabogunje, was a lecturer.

As a child, Ogunsola mimicked medical practitioners by using dolls as patients, while offering medical care to them.

EDUCATION

Ogunsola attended Queen’s College, Lagos.

She earned a Master’s degree from the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, and her first degree from the University of Ife, currently known as Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, between 1974 and 1982.

Mrs Ogunsola holds a Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology, an MSc in Medical Microbiology with Distinction, and a Diploma in Biomedical Techniques, from the University of Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff, among others.

PROFESSION

Ogunsola is a professor of Medical Microbiology and a Consultant Clinical Microbiologist and Infection Control for the Lagos University Teaching Hospital. She specializes in disease control, particularly HIV/AIDS.

In 2018, she expressed concern on disease prevention and control in Nigeria. She identified poor hygiene and over use of antibiotics as practices that foster antimicrobial-drug resistance.

Providing a solution, she maintained that “sustained Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) infrastructure and programs should be built around a set of core components which includes guidelines, training, surveillance, multimodal strategies for implementing IPC, monitoring and evaluation among others”.

She is a fellow of the Royal College of pathologists and the West African College of Physicians.

Ogunsola is also a fellow of, the National Postgraduate Medical College in Pathology, Nigerian Academy of Science band Foundation fellow of both the Nigerian Academy of Medicine and the Academy of Medicine Specialties.

She had served as the institution’s acting vice-chancellor on August 24, 2020, a position she held for a short period when the University was plunged into crisis as a result of the removal of the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, by the Wale Babalakin-led University Council.’

She was also the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Development Services) of the University between 2017 and 2021, a position she occupied before ascending to the institution’s Acting Vice Chancellorship.

Ogunsola had also served as a pioneer and only female Provost of the institution’s College of Medicine.

She is the principal investigator at the AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria at the University of Lagos.

She also served as a member of the governing council for three terms.

Ogunsola was a founding member of the Nigerian Society for Infection control in 1998 and is also a member of the Global Infection Prevention and Control Network.

This made her rank as the only one with such number of years in the governing council among all the other contestants.

She is said to have received various awards from both local and international bodies, has 142 publications in reputable academic journals, and co-authored four books.

Ogunsola has supervised or co-supervised eight doctoral students and 61 master’s degree students.

She will succeed Professor Ogundipe when the latter’s five-year tenure elapses in November.