A doctoral candidate in the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science (SMSCS), Mr Adeolu Taiwo is one of three recipients of a Fellowship from the International Mathematical Union (IMU) Breakout Graduate Fellowship (BGF) Programme, intended to aid them complete their PhDs.

The grants are made possible thanks to donations from winners of the Breakthrough Prizes in Mathematics, and are provided by the IMU with the assistance of the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and the Friends of the IMU (FIMU) to postgraduate students in developing countries pursuing PhDs in mathematical sciences.

According to the IMU, the limited number of grants recognise highly motivated and mathematically talented students in various developing countries, with selections made through nominations received from professional mathematicians, who nominate candidates with consistently good academic records who are interested in pursuing a career of research and teaching in mathematics.

Taiwo was recognised alongside students from Vietnam and Ukraine, and was nominated by his supervisor Professor Temitope Mewomo.

Originally from Nigeria, Taiwo is pursuing his PhD at UKZN on the topic of the generalised mixed pseudomonotone equilibrium problem and split equality fixed point problems in Banach spaces and their applications. According to Taiwo, this research is important in the field of mathematics as it serves as a unified framework for studying many other related optimisation problems, and has potential applications in other branches of mathematics, industry, physics, medicine, economics, and more.

‘I feel very happy and highly privileged to receive the award,’ said Taiwo. ‘I strongly believe it will make things easier and enable me to focus more on my research for more meaningful output.’

Taiwo thanked Mewomo for nominating him for the Fellowship.

Words: Christine Cuénod

Photograph: Supplied