Training

Ms. Juliette Biao Koudenoukpo, UN Environment Director and Regional Representative for Africa is a national of Benin. Ms. Koudenoukpo has a wealth of experience in international development assistance and 27 years of experience in environmental projects and programmes management. She has worked with a wide range of international organizations, including UNDP and IUCN, Stockholm Environment Institute, World Resource Institute, Nature Conservancy, and leading international institutions working in the area of environment, addressing sustainable development and poverty reduction. She has been involved in multi-country project design, development, management and resource mobilization in numerous countries within Western, Southern, Eastern, and Central Africa. From 2007 to 2008 she held the position of Minister of Environment and Nature Protection for the Benin government. She also used to be Acting Minister of Family and the Child. Before joining UN Environment in September 2015, Ms. Koudenoukpo, was with Canadian Crossroads International (CCI) where she was the Director of Programmes, and with Canadian Center for International Studies and Cooperation where she was the Regional Director for Africa.
Ms. Koudenoukpo holds a MSc. degree in Forestry Economics, a PhD. degree in Public Policy and Administration, and an expert diploma in Renewable Energy.

Dr Peter Sheard is the co-owner and founder of Trend 2000 Ltd. He has a first degree in Economics and Materials Technology and a PhD in Corrosion of Polymer Composites. Peter has published over 40 articles in journals, conferences, seminars and books. Since 1988 Peter has initiated and managed over 50 multi-national development consortia within various national and international initiatives concerning the selection, design and processing of polymeric composite materials and construction industry applications. Peter has been regularly assisting universities and SMEs across Europe with innovation planning and training/mentoring for the development of proposals under the European Commission Framework Programmes and Structural Funds across a wide range of technical and scientific disciplines. During the last 15 years Peter has developed and delivered in excess of 150 training events to universities, RTO’s and enterprises across the EU and Associated Countries. Peter has been instrumental in providing focused training on preparing for and writing applications for H2020 funding across all subject areas including Engineering, Life Sciences and Social Sciences. He has developed and delivered specialist training programmes for preparation of project budgets, effective administration and management, development of leadership skills, motivation and communication techniques. He works with a wide range of international universities to assist with training and mentoring proposal writers as well as undertaking pre-evaluations of proposals to improve their quality prior to submission.

He has also spun out and operated several manufacturing SMEs set up to exploit the results of international research. Peter is regularly contracted by funding agencies to work as an evaluator in the H2020, Eurostars, Czech and Danish National programmes. He also acts as a Reviewer of funded projects. He has completed assignments within the SME programme and is also retained as the Project Technical Advisor on 10 projects within the Nano Materials, Factories of the Future and Energy Efficient Buildings programmes.

Adedoyin Adeleke is a sustainable energy researcher and currently pursues a doctoral degree under the UNESCO Chair in Energy for Sustainable Development at the Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy with a scholarship from the Italian Government. Adedoyin holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, and a multidisciplinary master’s degree in Energy Studies from Nigeria’s Premier University, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, both in Nigeria. His interest in using theoretical knowledge to impact social and economic development led him to co-invent a 10-seconds chicken de-feathering machine during his undergraduate studies. As his master’s dissertation, he researched on the “Sustainability of Solar Mini-Grids in Nigeria” profiles factors responsible for failure and success of solar mini-grids in Nigeria.

Adedoyin has also received numerous awards for his excellent educational performance including the Federal Scholarship Board Undergraduate Award (2009-2012) which funded his undergraduate studies and the MacArthur Foundation Grant Scholarship (2015 – 2016) at the Centre for Petroleum, Energy Economics and Law, Ibadan, Nigeria for his master’s degree programme; Fellowship from the German Government for the 69th UNEP/UNESCO/BMUB International Short Course on Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, and Italian Government Scholarship for his Doctoral Study, among others. He has also received a number of travel grants from the Royal Academy of Overseas Science, Belgium, Centre for Petroleum, Energy Economics and Law, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, among others.

Adedoyin is also very much engrossed into volunteering and championing causes for educational development. While on National Youth Service in Kano State, Nigeria, he initiated and organised six different education-based community development programmes which directly benefitted more than 800 high school students and many others were indirect beneficiaries through his weekly radio and television programmes in the state. Funded by a fellowship from the German government, Adedoyin was one of the 21 young sustainable energy professionals that participated at the 69th UNEP/UNESCO/BMUB International Short Course on Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in 2016 at the Centre for International Postgraduate Studies of Environmental Management (CIPSEM), Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany in 2016. He has also participated in many conferences, workshops and summer schools on diverse sustainable energy topics in various countries. He served as a Lead Country Contributor for the Paris-based Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21) in preparing its 2017 Global Status Report on Renewable Energy. He also served as a Contributor to the 2017 1 Gigaton Report which tracked contributions of renewable energy and energy efficiency programmes in developing countries to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, among other contributions to causes for sustainable energy development globally.

Adedoyin says ‘Africa is too Rich to be Poor, I choose to Act’.

Oluwadamilola Pikuda is currently pursuing her PhD in Chemical Engineering (with specialization in Green Nanotechnology), at the Biocolloids and Surfaces Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, McGill University, Canada.

She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria and a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering, at the Institute Center for Water and Environment (iWater), Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, UAE, where she worked on Semi-Conductor Thin Films for Solar Light Activated Glass.

She is a past recipient of several prestigious scholarships such as Carnegie Female Merit Award, USA (2009-2012), Federal Government Undergraduate Scholarship, Nigeria (2009-2012), Masdar Institute Scholarship, UAE (2015-2016), and currently McGill Engineering Doctoral Award, Canada (2017 – date).

Oluwadamilola’s research interests are photocatalysis, material science, sustainable environment and nanotechnology. Her present research is aimed at developing materials for cleaner and more sustainable environment through instant water filtration system to make portable water more accessible especially in sub-saharan Africa. She has presented her research work at different conferences across the globe, and published several peer-reviewed publications.

Oluwadamilola is also an active member of Nigeria Future Energy Group (NiFEG) which is a non-profit oriented organisation with a focus on providing expertise in the applied energy field. NiFEG promotes sustainability whilst proffering solutions to localized energy problems. Among the successful projects of the group is powering the Kanji and Wolfson lecture halls in Ahmadu Bello University,Nigeria using solar PV panels, as well as providing training sessions on PV panel installation to the university students.