Prof. Godwin Chukwunede Ovuworie has been a Sloan’s Foundation Scholar and a Professor of Operation Research, Industrial and system Engineering in the Department of Production Engineering before his retirement in 2019. Born on November 16, 1949, he attended Igbobi College and the Federal School of Science, Lagos. In 1969, he left for the U.S.A to Berea College, for Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics (major), with physics (minor) on tuition scholarship from the College. With prestigious Sloan’s Foundation Fellowship, he obtained an M.Eng. degree in System Engineering at Howard University. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) awarded him a scholarship for a certificate in Analyses of Urban Service Systems. At the George Washington University, he obtained a Masters of Science. degree in Operation Research and Industrial Engineering Systems. Then sojourned briefly at the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology before proceeding to the Royal Holloway College, University of London for Ph.D. degree in Operational Research certificate in Tertiary Teaching from Robert Gordon University, Scotland.

He has supervised numerous Bachelor’s, Master’s and Ph.D. degree/theses in Mathematics, Computer Science, Nursing, Business Administration, Civil Engineering and Industrial/Production Engineering. He has produced about the largest number of Ph.D.’s as academic staff of the Faculty of Engineering where he started his career as an assistant lecturer on July 1, 1975.

He developed a system of minimizing loss of documents in transit for the Pathology Department of Freedman’s Hospital at Howard University Medical School. At the National Academy of Science and the National Academy of Engineering, he developed the effluent limitation guidelines for 39 industries in the U.S for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

As a consultant for President Nixon’s Project Independence, he estimated the manpower requirement in the coal industry. In the UK, he produced headway distribution model for gap acceptance to reduce accidents at priority-controlled junctions, under contract to the Transport and Road Research Laboratory. He joined Professor Asalor and Onibere (then young doctors) to setup the large-Scale Systems Research Group as a platform/outfit to address a number of crippling National problems in communication, military logistics, and road traffic accidents, among others. A proposal earlier sent to president Shagari, but later approved and awarded to the Group by the Buhari-Idiagbon military regime, resulted in the establishment of Federal Road Safety Commission.

He has served as HOD Production Engineering, University of Benin, HOD Mathematical Sciences, Bendel State University and more recently, Dean of the Maritime Transport and Logistics Management, Nigerian Maritime University. He has also served as the pioneer manager, Consultancy Service Unit, Director Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Office (IPTTO) and Director of Research, the Large-Scale Systems Research Group. He has also served as either chairman or member of major committees and boards.

He was a consultant to Shell on the prestigious (SITP) and NNPC on the famous FSTP. He initiated the First International Sensitization Workshop on Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer for Nigerian Vice-Chancellors and other stakeholders jointly organized by the NUC, IPTTO-UNIBEN, and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), having Mr. Geoffery Onyeama, the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, as a focal point.

He is happily married to Mrs. Nkemodilim Monica Ovuworie and they are blessed with six children.