THE LEGACY OF ADELINE BISI DUROTOYE: A PIONEERING FEMALE NIGERIAN GEOLOGIST

Adeline Bisi Durotoye (1943-2006) was a professor of geology and founding director of the Natural History Museum at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria during our undergraduate studies. An accomplished Quaternary Geologist, she was a trailblazer as the first female Nigerian graduate of geology from a Nigerian university, the first female to obtain a doctorate, and the first female professor of geology in the country. She became the pioneer Registrar of the Council of Mining Engineers and Geoscientists, the body charged with regulating the training and practice of mining engineers and geoscientists in Nigeria. Bisi Durotoye was a role model to the few female students in our department as well as our male peers. She was admired and respected by many students and colleagues across Nigeria and Africa for her scholarly contributions and for her roles as a museum director, a campus leader, and a single parent to three children. Her publications and dozens of meeting abstracts with research collaborators demonstrated the importance of professional networking. Bisi Durotoye’s tenacity and work ethics taught numerous students resilience, and inspired them to aim high, far and wide in pursuit of professional careers that have extended beyond Nigeria and Africa. She was much more than a quintessential teacher to the students she inspired through her persona and body of work.