Nigeria’s first female Vice-Chancellor, Prof Grace Alele-Williams has died at the age of 89.
Professor Alele-Williams, made history as the first Nigerian woman to receive a doctorate in Mathematics in 1963 and the first Nigerian female VC at the University of Benin (UNIBEN) in 1985.
Her tenure as VC witnessed a drastic reduction in cultism, a menace in UNIBEN at the time.
Alele-Williams, who was born in Warri, Delta State, obtained a master’s degree in mathematics while teaching at Queen’s School, Ede in Osun State in 1957 and her PhD degree in mathematics education at the University of Chicago in 1963
From 1963 to 1965, Alele-Williams was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Ibadan from where she was appointed a professor of mathematics at the University of Lagos in 1976
She was the first president of the African Mathematical Union Commission on Women in Mathematics. She received many awards and honours including the Order of the Niger in 1987.
She received the centenary award in 2014