The Department of physical sciences, Machakos University (MksU) was privileged to host a diaspora fellow, Prof. Jean-Luc Ayitou from the University of Illinois, Chicago (UIC) USA in the month of July 2023. During his visit, the fellow together with his collaborators (Dr. Veronica Okello (MksU) and (Dr. Harun Mbuvi, Kenyatta University (KU)) were able to commence their work on a project that seeks to repurpose biomass and agricultural wastes by employing synthetic chemistry tools to functionalize affordable/cheap plant-based materials to afford porous “eco-sponge” that could be tailored for the remediation of oil spillage in water.
Two BSc Analytical Chemistry students from MksU (John King’ori and Charles Mwangi) and two MSc Chemistry students from KU (Jecinter Akoth and John Tepela) are currently actively involved in the project. The group also managed to secure a small grant (US $ 1500) to assist in purchase of some consumables. In addition, Prof. Ayitou participated in various seminars, student mentorship sessions and PhD in Chemistry curriculum development. He also paid a courtesy call to various top management in the university including the Vice Chancellor, the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research, Innovation and Linkages) where they discussed a number of agenda items including but not limited to establishing strong sustainable collaborations.
Worth noting is that MksU recently signed an agreement with Argonne National Labs, in Chicago USA courtesy of the collaboration between the fellow and Dr. Okello and therefore staff at MksU are strongly encouraged to explore this great opportunity since Argonne’s labs and facilities provide unique state of the art capabilities to the scientific community. As part of continued collaboration, Ms. Pamela Ondiek, an MSc. Chemistry Student at MksU, will be joining UIC in September to continue with her graduate studies.
