astronomy

Pius N. Okeke

Pius N. Okeke is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Pius N. Okeke rather than just read about it. In short: Pius Nwankwo Okeke (, born 30 October 1941) is a Nigerian astronomer and educator who contributed immensely to African space research. He is known as the Father of Astronomy in Nigeria.

Key takeaways

Pius N. Okeke belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Pius N. Okeke to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Pius N. Okeke from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Pius Nwankwo Okeke (, born 30 October 1941) is a Nigerian astronomer and educator who contributed immensely to African space research. He is known as the Father of Astronomy in Nigeria.

Early life Pius Nwankwo Okeke was born on 30 October 1941 in Oraukwu, Anambra Central Senatorial District, Nigeria. Okeke attended primary school in Oraukwu, where he excelled in Math. He attended secondary school at Washington Memorial Grammar School Onitsha from 1957 until 1962. Okeke attended Emergency science school in Lagos, where he did his A level. In 1965, he was admitted to the University of Lagos to study Physics. However, due to the civil war, he was transferred to the University of Nigeria, where he completed a bachelor's degree in Physics in 1971. He continued as a junior research fellow at the university before finishing his PhD in 1975 which made him the first person to achieve that.

Research and career In 1979, Okeke moved as a Postdoctoral researcher to the University of Cambridge to work under the supervision of Professor Martin Rees. Upon his return to Nigeria and by 1989, he became a professor and the leader of the Space Research Centre at the University of Nigeria. At the University of Nigeria, he was the head of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and then the Dean of the Faculty of Physical Sciences from 1999 to 2002. As of November 2022, Okeke is an emeritus professor at the University of Nigeria. Okeke was a visiting scientist at the University of Tuebingen (1995) and Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (1997), a senior research fellow at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (1993), a visiting professor at the South African Astronomical Observatory (1996), and an external Board Member of the National Research Foundation (South Africa) from 1994 until 2000. Okeke was the President of the African Astronomical Society and the director of the Centre for Basic Space Science. Through strong postgraduate programmes and research facilities, he has helped to pioneer space science programmes in Africa. A 25-meter radio telescope, one of the biggest in Africa, is being put up in Nsukka under Okeke's leadership and in partnership with China. Okeke has produced 15 textbooks on physics and astronomy. He is the author of Senior Secondary Physics. He has made an immeasurable contribution to the development of academics, supposedly, responsible for producing around 3/4 of the Nigeria’s astronomers. Okeke has been referred to as the Father of Astronomy in Nigeria. Okeke is an associate at the Pan-African School of Emerging Astronomers (PASEA) and the West African International Summer School for young astronomers. His biography, Braving the Stars, was co-authored by Sam Chukwu and Jeff Unaegbu in 2013.

Awards Okeke won the following awards:

Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (FRAS) Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Science (1998). Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences (2017). United Nations Consultant for Space Science in Africa. Recipient of the UN/NASA award for his work in advancing Astronomy in Africa (2007).

Personal life Okeke is married to Francisca Okeke, a professor of physics, and has six children. Francisca Okeke is an established physicist who had won the L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards in 2013.

Selected publications

Okeke, Pius N.; Anyakoha, M. W. (1987). Senior secondary physics. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-37571-8. OCLC 17776397. Soon, W; Baliunas, S; Posmentier, E.S; Okeke, P (2000). "Variations of solar coronal hole area and terrestrial lower tropospheric air temperature from 1979 to mid-1998: astronomical forcings of change in earth's climate?". New Astronomy. 4 (8). Elsevier BV: 563–579. Bibcode:2000NewA....4..563S. doi:10.1016/s1384-1076(00)00002-6. ISSN 1384-1076. Ayantunji, Benjamin Gbenro; Okeke, P. N.; Urama, J. O. (2011). "Diurnal and Seasonal Variation of Surface Refractivity Over Nigeria". Progress in Electromagnetics Research B. 30. The Electromagnetics Academy: 201–222. doi:10.2528/pierb11030902. ISSN 1937-6472.

References

Further reading Chukwu, Sam; Unaegbu, Jeff (2013). Braving the Stars: The Biography of P.N. Okeke famous Nigerian space scientist and professor of physics. Independently published. ISBN 978-1080411818.

External links Pius N. Okeke publications indexed by Google Scholar Pius N. Okeke's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required) Pius Nwankwo Okeke, researchgate profile.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Pius N. Okeke

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Pius N. Okeke claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Pius N. Okeke before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Pius N. Okeke ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Pius N. Okeke

In research: Pius N. Okeke appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Pius N. Okeke in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Pius N. Okeke is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1941 births, 20th-century astronomers, 20th-century physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Pius N. Okeke outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Pius N. Okeke in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Pius N. Okeke means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Pius N. Okeke in simple terms?

Pius Nwankwo Okeke (, born 30 October 1941) is a Nigerian astronomer and educator who contributed immensely to African space research. He is known as the Father of Astronomy in Nigeria.

Why does Pius N. Okeke matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Pius N. Okeke?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Pius N. Okeke.