Ogwashi -Ukwu community in Aniocha South Local Government of Delta State has felicitated with one of their own, Dr. Maxwell Azuka Meju for bagging the Reginald Fessenden Award, one of the highest global awards given to Exploration Geophysicists. Dr. Meju is a researcher at PETRONAS Centre for Advanced Imaging in Malaysia.
In a congratulatory letter on behalf of the Obi-in-council and the Ogwashi- Ukwucommunity, Prof. Chukwuka Okonjo, the Obi of Ogwashi- Ukwu said Dr. Meju has brought honour to Ogwashi- Ukwu and Nigeria for the international award in “recognition of your technical contribution and development of the current cross-gradient joint inversion method, an invention that is widely used in the academia and various industries”.
Meju was the best graduating student in University of Benin in 1981. He was the first to be awarded a First Class in Geology in the university. He was a Federal Government Postgraduate Scholar to Imperial College, University of London where he obtained a Masters degree in Geophysics in 1984. He moved to University of Edinburgh, Scotland for his Ph.D in Geophysics specialising in Geoelectromagnetism. In his career trajectory, Meju has lectured in several universities in the UK and other research centres before berthing at PETRONAS Centre for Advance Imaging where he leads all the multi-physics innovation and practice.
Together with Dr. Luis Gallardo, his Ph.D student at University of Leicester, they developed a new brand of mathematics for data fusion or resolving conflict between uncorrelated models which they termed the “cross-gradient method. The theory and application published in 2003 and 2004 are now used worldwide.
In a letter to Dr. Meju notifying him of the award, the President of the Tulsa, United States’ based Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG), Robert Stewart said: “ it is my privilege to notify you that by unanimous decision of the SEG Honors Board of Directors, you and Luis Gallardo have been selected to receive the Society’s Reginald Fessenden Award. This honor is in recognition of your development of the current method of cross-gradient joint inversion. The Reginald Fessenden Award is given to a person who has made a specific technical contribution to exploration geophysics, such as an invention or theoretical or conceptual advancement, which in the opinion of the Honors and Awards Committee and the Board of Directors, merits special recognition,” the awarding University said in a statement.
