Samuel Ejikeme Okoye (26 July 1939 – 18 November 2009) was a Nigerian astrophysicist from Amawbia in Anambra State, Nigeria. Okoye was the first Black African to obtain a doctorate degree in radio astronomy.
Early life and education Okoye was born in Amawbia, in south eastern Nigeria. He was the son of Simeon and Agnes Okoye, and was the fifth of nine children. Okoye excelled academically, earning a scholarship to attend Government Secondary School, Owerri. He was later admitted to study Physics at University College Ibadan, which was then affiliated with the University of London. In 1962, he graduated with First Class honours and was awarded the departmental prize for best graduating student. He later received a prestigious Carnegie Foundation Fellowship—an internationally recognized award—which enabled him to pursue a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. At the time Okoye joined, the research group had expanded to become the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory. Under the supervision of Antony Hewish, he conducted investigations into the structure of the interplanetary medium through scintillation techniques. He designed and constructed two corner reflector antennas along with their associated beam-switching circuit. This instrumentation facilitated his study of the radio emissions from the Crab Nebula. ” Okoye played a pivotal role in the research that contributed to Antony Hewish receiving the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics. In his Nobel acceptance speech, Hewish acknowledged Okoye’s collaboration in the discovery of the neutron star. He stated: “The first really unusual source to be uncovered by this method turned up in 1965 when, with my student Okoye, I was studying radio emission from the Crab Nebula. We found a prominent scintillating component within the nebula which was far too small to be explained by conventional synchrotron radiation, and we suggested that this might be the remains of the original star which had exploded and which still showed activity in the form of flare-type radio emission. This source later turned out to be none other than the famous Crab Nebula pulsar.” During his time at Cambridge, he established academic connections both within the United Kingdom and internationally. His research activities included visits to the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia, US
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

