Professor Damilola S Olawuyi appointed as Deputy Vice Chancellor at Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti

Professor Damilola S. Olawuyi has been appointed as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research, Innovation and Strategic Partnerships at Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti (ABUAD) effective immediately.

A prolific and highly regarded scholar, Professor Olawuyi joined ABUAD as a senior lecturer and Director of the Institute for Oil, Gas, Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development (OGEES Institute) of the University.  Since then, he has provided strategic coordination and management of the OGEES Institute, which has now become recognized as one of Nigeria’s foremost research institutes on all aspects of energy, environment, and sustainable development. Professor Olawuyi was promoted to the rank of Full Professor of Law at the age of 32, becoming one of Nigeria’s youngest professors of law in history.

Professor Olawuyi holds a doctorate (DPhil) in energy and environmental law from the University of Oxford; a master of laws (LL.M.) from Harvard University; and another LL.M. from the University of Calgary. He obtained a first class degree in law from Igbinedion University, Nigeria and another first-class degree from the Nigerian Law School, Abuja, Nigeria.

Professor Olawuyi has practiced and taught law in Europe, North America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. He has served as a visiting professor at Columbia Law School, New York, China University of Political Science and Law and senior visiting research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. In 2019, he was a Herbert Smith Freehills visiting professor at Cambridge University. He was formerly an international energy lawyer at Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP where he served on the firm’s global committee on energy investments in Africa. He has delivered lectures on energy law in over 40 countries. He was also former deputy director and head of international environmental law at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, Waterloo, Canada.

Professor Olawuyi has published over 100 influential peer-reviewed articles, books, and reports on energy finance, sustainable development law, and extractive resource governance. His most recent book publications are: Extractives Industry Law in Africa (Springer 2018) and The Human Rights-Based Approach to Carbon Finance (Cambridge University Press, 2016), has been described by The Rt. Hon the Lord Jonathan Hugh Mance of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom as one of the most important contributions to international law.

Professor Olawuyi serves on the executive committees and boards of several organizations. He is Vice-Chair of the International Law Association globally; co-chair of the Africa Interest Group of the American Society of International Law (2016-2019); and member of the Academic Advisory Group of the International Bar Association’s Section on Energy, Environment, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure Law (SEERIL). He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy. He has served as a visiting professor of law.

In 2018, he was appointed as an expert member of the Federal Technical Committee on National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency Bill, Committee on

Environment and Habitat, Federal House of Representatives, Government of Nigeria, Abuja.

Professor Olawuyi is a regular media commentator on all aspects of natural resources, energy, and environmental law.

The Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research, Innovation and Strategic Partnerships) was established to lead the development and implementation of the University’s Strategic Plan on research, innovation and strategic linkages. Working with major national, regional and international alliances and networks, as well as partners from industry, the public sector and the civil society, the Office will develop and deliver the University’s medium- and long-term research priorities and aspirations.