A Rejected Solution to a Local Problem Fetched Me an International Award

Taslim Owonikoko , Nigeria

I was trying to proffer a solution to problem that I could not trace, by acting on instinct.

The complex where I could practice my expertise was/is still not yet on ground and I decided to create a role model in my country so as to encourage future scientist to strive and look for pragmatic ways to solve unemployment among science graduates in Nigeria.

I am interested in conversion of agrobiomass to industrial products for applications in automotive, power, agricultural, paints & coatings, emulsion bioplastics, oil spill cleaning,lignocellulose mediated LABS CLEANING, preservatives for plant and animal specimens using agrobiomass derived products etc.

My research efforts earned a National Gold Award as the best Inventor/innovator in Nigeria-2007, and a Joint Gift Certificate Prize by Innocentive-MIT-CBS Team in 2005. Five granted Patents & 6-PATENTS Pending till date. MEMBER American Chemical Society ACS No. 2331834.

I’m a scientist in private practice and in a rural part of Nigeria.

The local popular industry in my local county is hand-weaving of cloth and dyeing.
I was challenged as chemical expert in the year 2002 to develop a coloring material for cotton yarn which would need to fix colors on the yarn without the use of the conventional hydrosulfite fixates which is well known by the weavers, and to avoid heating and the caustic effect on hands, and to be able to build custom colors which are traditionally known from time and could not be gotten off the shelf in stores.

Pronto! I was able to build an intermediate carrier for the colors on the fabric by using an Aluminum salt solution and a cellulose derivative solution in a stepwise application which gave the required solution to the problem on ground. Alas! the intended customers refused to buy the recipe from me as they insisted on being given the recipe to carry out a freedom–to-practice training on their own since I’m not a white man but black man like them. We had a stalemate and the investment on R&D went down the drain.

Year 2004, Innocentive Inc. posted a problem related to my solution and it took me 2 months to finally submit the solution to Innocentive. It took Innocentive and the seekers 6 months to evaluate my submission. And in the year 2005, I won my first international R&D Prize based on my effort at solving the tough problem.

Owonikoko Taslim, BSc (Hons) Chem Eng.(ACS No. 2331834).
CEO/HEAD R&D
Berekotry Auto-Grease Limited,(RC-607922)
Berekotry Detergent Limited (RC-607923)
km.1, Oremoje Rd., Iseyin, Oyo State,Nigeria.
National Gold Award Winner
Innocentive-MIT-CBS R&D Award Winner, Andover, Massachcusset, USA.
5-Patent Approvals, 6-patent Pending.
Tel:234-8034-222-448(Mobile)
email:[email protected]

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