Prof. Bolanle Aishat Akinwande is a highly accomplished food scientist and academic leader with a distinguished career in teaching, research, and administration. She has Ph.D in Food Science and is a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Food Science and Technology (FNIFST) (2018). She has expertise in value addition to underutilized indigenous crops for health and wealth initiatives. These include process optimization for food production and preservation, promotion of underutilized crops like indigenous legumes, above- and below-ground mushrooms, and orange-fleshed sweet potato for enhanced nutrition and livelihoods. She was a recipient of the Netherlands Fellowship Program (2017), a post-Doctoral fellow and a mentor of African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) in 2011 and 2014, respectively. She has mentored several younger researchers and academia at formal and informal levels.
Bolanle led a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional project sponsored by World Bank, and with community engagements advance the course of the rural dwellers. She secured grants for research projects on food security, nutrition, and agricultural development. These include grants from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Nigeria (2015) and the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Program (WAAPP-Nigeria) (2014), a world bank sponsored project.
Bolanle is an expert in quality assurance in higher education. She is an alumna of DIES (Dialogue on Innovative Higher Education Strategies) with training on Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) in Anglophone West Africa (2014-2016). She developed blueprint for the establishment and implementation of IQA for her University. She was a team member and a Trainer of Nigeria and Gambia cohorts of DIES National Multiplication Trainings in 2019-2020 and 2021-2022, respectively. She was a consultant for 2020-2021 TrainIQA course in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.
Bolanle has Diploma in Agribusiness and Post-Harvest Management from Galilee International Management Institute, Nahalal, Israel (2012) and a certificate in Internal Quality Assurance in Higher Education Institutions from Centre for Higher Education Development and Quality Enhancement of University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany (2016). She was a member of the 3-man committee that wrote a template on ‘Education for the Development of Oyo State’, Nigeria in 2019. She is currently the Director of Academic Planning of her University and the Chairperson of the Committee of Directors of Academic Planning of Nigerian Universities.
She has extensive experience in teaching and leadership roles at universities in Nigeria. She held positions such as Ag. Head of Department of Food Science and Engineering (2013 – 2015), pioneer Director of Quality Assurance (2015 – 2019) and Director of Academic Planning Unit (2021 till date) at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria. She is currently serving as the Chairman of the Western Chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Food Science and Technology (2023 – till date), and the Chairman of the Committee of Directors of Academic planning in Nigerian Universities (2022 – till date). She won four prizes, i. Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufai Prize for the Best Female Participant, ii. Best Director of Academic Planning, iii. Peter A. Okebukola Prize for the Best Project Report, and iv. The third best overall in ‘Theory and Practice of Strategic Planning and Implementation short course by Virtual Institute for Capacity Building in Higher Education (VICBHE) (2023).
She has supervised and co-supervised nine Ph.D. supervised eleven M.Tech./M.Sc. and several B.Sc. research projects. She is actively engaged in community outreach programs to educate rural women on sustainable food processing techniques and to promote the use of readily available and cheap nutritious crops.
In summary, Bolanle Akinwande is a leading food scientist with a passion for improving nutrition and livelihoods in Africa. She has a remarkable record of research, scholarship, and leadership in academia. Her dedication to capacity building and community engagement makes her a valuable asset in the fight against food insecurity and malnutrition.