Omowunmi Sadik

{{Infobox scientist

|name = Omowunmi Sadik

|image = Omowunmi Sadik Speaker at Innovation Day 2010backlit.jpg

|image_size = 150

|caption =

|birth_name =

|birth_date = 1964

|birth_place = Lagos, Nigeria

|nationality = Nigerian

|field = Surface chemistry, Environmental nanotechnology

|work_institutions = New Jersey Institute of Technology

|alma_mater = University of Lagos, Wollongong University

|notable_students = Samira Musah

}}

Omowunmi "Wunmi" A. Sadik (born 19 June 1964) is a Nigerian-American professor, chemist, and inventor working at New Jersey Institute of Technology.{{Cite web |last=biodunbusari@vanguardngr.com |date=2024-04-12 |title=Meet Nigerian scholar, Omowunmi Sadik, who invented explosive-detection device in US |url=https://www.vanguardngr.com/2024/04/meet-nigerian-scholar-omowunmi-sadik-who-invented-explosive-detection-device-in-us/ |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=Vanguard News |language=en-GB}} She has developed microelectrode biosensors for detection of drugs and explosives and is working on the development of technologies for recycling metal ions from waste, for use in environmental and industrial applications.{{Cite web|title=How Omowunmi Sadik Keeps Breaking New Grounds In Scientific Research|url=http://woman.ng/2018/07/how-omowunmi-sadik-keeps-breaking-new-grounds-in-scientific-research/|last=Woman.NG|date=2018-07-07|website=Woman.NG|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-26|archive-date=2019-09-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190910114953/http://woman.ng/2018/07/how-omowunmi-sadik-keeps-breaking-new-grounds-in-scientific-research|url-status=dead}} In 2012, Sadik co-founded the non-profit Sustainable Nanotechnology Organization.{{Cite web|title=Sadik bio|url=https://sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/Jefferson/PGA_176873|website=sites.nationalacademies.org|access-date=2020-05-26}}

Early life and education

Sadik was born in 1964 in Lagos, Nigeria. Her family included a number of scientists, who supported her interests in physics, chemistry, and biology. She received her bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Lagos in 1985, and went on to receive her master's degree in chemistry in 1987.{{Cite web |last=biodunbusari@vanguardngr.com |date=2024-04-12 |title=Meet Nigerian scholar, Omowunmi Sadik, who invented explosive-detection device in US |url=https://www.vanguardngr.com/2024/04/meet-nigerian-scholar-omowunmi-sadik-who-invented-explosive-detection-device-in-us/ |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=Vanguard News |language=en-GB}} Sadik then attended Wollongong University in Australia. In 1994, she received her Ph.D. degree in chemistry from Wollongong.{{cite web|title=ScienceMakers : Omowunmi Sadik|url=http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/omowunmi-sadik|website=The History Makers|access-date=13 November 2015}}{{Cite web |title=Omowunmi Sadik {{!}} People |url=https://people.njit.edu/faculty/sadik |access-date=2023-06-04 |website=people.njit.edu |language=en}}

Career

A postdoctoral fellowship from the National Research Council supported her as a researcher at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 1994 to 1996. She then accepted a position as an assistant professor of chemistry at the Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York. She was promoted to associate professor in 2002, and full professor in 2005. At that time, she also became director of the Center for Advanced Sensors & Environmental Systems (CASE) at Binghamton. In 2019, Dr. Sadik moved to the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), as chair of the Department of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences and director of the NJIT BioSensors Materials for Advanced Research & Technology (The BioSMART Center).{{Cite web |title=Omowunmi Sadik {{!}} People |url=https://people.njit.edu/faculty/sadik |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=people.njit.edu |language=en}} She has also served as a visiting faculty member at the Naval Research Laboratory, Cornell University, and Harvard University.{{Cite web |title=Omowunmi Sadik's Biography |url=https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/omowunmi-sadik |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=The HistoryMakers |language=en}} In 2024, she was appointed as the inaugural Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs at NJIT.

Sadik studies surface chemistry, with particular emphasis on the development of biosensors for use in environmental chemistry. She has found that conducting polymers are especially promising for use in sensing applications.{{cite journal|last1=Sadik|first1=Omowunmi A.|title=Bioaffinity Sensors Based on Conducting Polymers: A Short Review|journal=Electroanalysis|date=August 1999|volume=11|issue=12|pages=839–844|doi=10.1002/(SICI)1521-4109(199908)11:12<839::AID-ELAN839>3.0.CO;2-1}}{{cite journal|last1=Sadik|first1=Omowunmi A.|last2=Brenda|first2=Sharin|last3=Joasil|first3=Patrick|last4=Lord|first4=John|title=Electropolymerized Conducting Polymers as Glucose Sensors|journal=Journal of Chemical Education|date=July 1999|volume=76|issue=7|pages=967|doi=10.1021/ed076p967|bibcode=1999JChEd..76..967S}} She has developed microelectrode biosensors sensitive to trace amounts of organic materials,{{cite journal|last1=Sadik|first1=Omowunmi A.|title=JEM Spotlight: Applications of advanced nanomaterials for environmental monitoring|journal=Journal of Environmental Monitoring|date=2009|volume=11|issue=1|pages=25–26|doi=10.1039/B820365M|pmid=19137135}} technology which can be used for drug and bomb detection.{{cite web|title=Sadik invited to give talk at NSF biochemical terrorism workshop|url=https://discovere.binghamton.edu/news/sadik-invited-to-give-talk-at-nsf-biochemical-terrorism-workshop-438.html|website=Discover-e|date=December 7, 2001}}{{cite journal|last1=Sadik|first1=O. A.|last2=Zhou|first2=A. L.|last3=Kikandi|first3=S.|last4=Du|first4=N.|last5=Wang|first5=Q.|last6=Varner|first6=K.|title=Sensors as tools for quantitation, nanotoxicity and nanomonitoring assessment of engineered nanomaterials|journal=Journal of Environmental Monitoring|date=2009|volume=11|issue=10|pages=1782–800|doi=10.1039/b912860c|pmid=19809701}} She is also studying detoxification mechanisms of wastes such as organochlorine compounds in the environment, with the purpose of developing technologies for recycling metal ions from industrial and environmental waste. In one project, microbial enzymes increased the conversion of highly toxic chromium (VI) to non-toxic chromium (III) from 40% to 98%.{{cite journal|last1=Farrington|first1=Keith|title=Interview: Monitoring the environment|journal=Highlights in Chemical Technology|date=4 March 2010|volume=Royal Society of Chemistry|url=http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/ChemTech/Volume/2010/03/omowunmi_sadik_interview.asp|access-date=21 November 2015}} Sadik is credited with more than 135 peer-reviewed research papers and patent applications. She holds U.S. patents on particular types of bichair oors. In 2011, she was the chairperson of the inaugural Gordon Conference on Environmental Nanotechnology.{{cite web|title=Omowunmi Sadik, SUNY-Binghamton : Nano|url=http://www.nano.gov/Sadik|website=National Nanotechnology Initiative|access-date=13 November 2015|archive-date=30 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180830005148/https://www.nano.gov/Sadik|url-status=dead}} In 2012, Sadik and Barbara Karn co-founded the Sustainable Nanotechnology Organization, a non-profit, international professional society for the responsible use of nanotechnology worldwide.{{cite web|last1=SNO Sustainable Nanotechnology Organization|title=First Sustainable Nanotechnology Organization Conference Program|url=http://www.susnano.org/images/SNO_Program2012.pdf|website=SNO Sustainable Nanotechnology Organization|date=November 6, 2012}}

Sadik is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2010), the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (2012), the American Chemical Society (2023), and the National Academy of Inventors (2024). She is involved with the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation, and was part of the National Institutes of Health Study Panel on Instrumentation and Systems Development. She is involved in international collaborations with the UNESCO International Center of Biodynamics in Bucharest, Romania, Ege University in Turkey, and the University of Fukui in Japan.

Awards

2000, National Research Council (NRC) COBASE fellowship{{cite web|title=Omowunmi "Wunmi" Sadik|url=http://chemiris.chem.binghamton.edu/SADIK/sadik.htm|website=Department of Chemistry, State University of New York at Binghamton|access-date=13 November 2015}}
2001, Chancellor's Award for Research in Science and Medicine, SUNY{{cite web|title=Faculty Spotlight: OMOWUNMI SADIK, Ph.D. ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, ANALYTICAL & ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY|url=http://research.binghamton.edu/faculty/SADIK/sadik.htm|website=Binghamton University|access-date=13 November 2015}}
2002, Chancellor's Award for Premier Inventors, SUNY
2003–2004, Distinguished Radcliffe Fellowship from Harvard University{{cite web|title=Fellow: Omowunmi A.Sadik|url=https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/people/omowunmi-sadik|website=Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Harvard University|access-date=13 November 2015|archive-date=7 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180707172334/https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/people/omowunmi-sadik|url-status=dead}}
2005–2006, NSF Discovery Corps Senior Fellowship{{cite web|title=NSF Announces New Discovery Corps Fellows|url=https://www.nsf.gov/mobile/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=104365&org=MPS|website=National Science Foundation|access-date=13 November 2015}}
2016, Nigerian National Order of Merit Award (NNOM){{cite web |url= https://www.binghamton.edu/inside/index.php/inside/story/16999/sadik-honored-with-nigerian-national-order-of-merit/ | title= Sadik honored with Nigerian National Order of Merit Kudu | author = Katie Ellis | date = 17 January 2017|access-date=29 July 2017 | publisher= Binghamton University, State University of New York}}{{cite news |last1=Idoko |first1=Clement |title=FG names Professors Omowunmi, Ojaide 2016 winners of NNOM award |url=https://www.tribuneonlineng.com/43152/ |access-date=28 December 2018 |work=Nigerian Tribune |date=November 25, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190410141610/https://www.tribuneonlineng.com/43152/ |archive-date=10 April 2019 |url-status=dead }}
2017, Jefferson Science Fellow{{cite web |url= http://sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/Jefferson/PGA_046613| title= 2017 Jefferson Science Fellow | date = 2017 |access-date=29 July 2017 | publisher= The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine}}
Australian Merit Award
2023, [https://www.acs.org/funding/awards/acs-fellows/fellows/2023-fellows.html#S American Chemical Society Fellow]
2024, National Academy of Inventors (NAI) fellowship {{cite web |title=Omowunmi Sadik – NAI Fellow |url=https://academyofinventors.org/fellow/omowunmi-sadik/ |access-date=2025-01-08}}
2024, The Wallace H. Coulter Award for Lifetime Achievement, Pittcon {{cite web |title=NJIT Chemist Wins Wallace H. Coulter Award for Career Achievements |url=https://news.njit.edu/njit-chemist-wins-wallace-h-coulter-award-career-achievements |access-date=2025-01-08}}