TITLE (PROF/DR/): PROF

NAME: OKIEI, WESLEY OHIFEME

POSITION:PROFESSOR

EDUCATION/TRAINING (Begin with Bachelor’s degree or other initial professional education, such as nursing, include postdoctoral training and residency training if applicable. Add/delete rows as necessary.)

Personal Statement

Wesley Ohifeme Okiei is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Lagos. He was a Monbusho scholar at Hokkaido University, Japan before he received a Ph.D in Chemistry from the University of Lagos. He worked briefly with Lever Brothers Nig Ltd (Now known as Unilever Nig. PLC), before joining the services of University of Lagos in 1991. He has spent the last thirty-five (35) years teaching and carrying out research in chemistry.

His group focuses on understanding the nature of the electrochemical interface between various working electrodes and analytes of interest. The knowledge gained is used to pursue innovative sensing technologies to promote human health, food security and the environment. Surface modification of working electrodes, with the intent of mediating its electrochemical behaviour, remains an important research area. His research also extends to analyses of essential oils from medicinal plants and the use of Screen-Printed Electrodes as sensor platforms with graphene-based compounds towards the detection of biological analytes such as vitamins, hormones and haemoglobin molecules to improve future medical diagnostic systems. He has over 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals and over fifty (50) Conference contributions. 

Positions, Scientific Appointments, and Honours
 1. Monbusho Scholar, Hokkaido University, Sapporo Japan, 1984.

2.Discovery Corp Fellow, National Science Foundation, USA at Binghamton University, USA, 2006.

3.Winner of PAFOTFUL inaugural award of Best PhD thesis Supervisor in 2024 University of Lagos

             convocation ceremonies.

1. Selected Publications /Contributions to Science
   1. Akitoye A, Blank D, Olaitan G, Akinbulu IA, Okiei W and Silva TA (2025). Shelf-life quality evaluation and smartphone-based phenolic analysis of cassava treated with varied chitosan formulations. Food Chemistry 467: 142270.
2. Akitoye A, Olaitan G, Akinbulu I and Okiei W (2024). Effective chitosan-antioxidant treatments for extending cassava shelf-life evaluated using silver nanosensor. Plant Nano Biology 10: 100115.
3. Akitoye A, Tochi NS, Akinbulu IA, Okiei WO and Silva TA (2024). Chitosan nanocomposites-based electrochemical sensors: A review. International Research Journal of Pure and Applied Chemistry 25(4): 76–98.
4. Akitoye AA, Ibrahim GO and Okiei WO (2024). Chitosan-based coatings for shelf-life elongation of cassava root tubers. Moroccan Journal of Chemistry 12(1). https://doi.org/10.48317/IMIST.PRSM/morjchem-v12i1.42

5. Greatness Olaitan and Wesley Okiei (2021). Electrochemical Determination of the Levels of Lead and Cadmium in Soil Samples from Niger and Ogun States, Nigeria: Remediation Potential with Chitosan Phosphate and Implications for Human Health and Disease, Springer Nature Applied Sciences,

 Collaborators/Network. International inclusive,

1. Professor Omowunmi Sadik, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Environmental Science, New Jersey Institute of Technology USA, Vice Provost, for Faculty Affairs.
2. Professor Kenneth I. Ozoemena, School of Chemistry, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

• Tiago Almeid Silva, Federal University of Vicosa, Brazil.

1. Carlos Fernandez, School of Pharmacy and Life Sciences, Robert Gordon University, UK.
2. Peter Iluebbey, IITA, Ibadan