Stella Ifeanyi Smith

Prof. Stella Ifeanyi SMITH holds a PhD in Medical Microbiology from the College of Medicine, University of Lagos with special interest in Molecular epidemiology, microbiome and antimicrobial resistance of infectious diseases such as Helicobacter pylori, Salmonella spp, Campylobacter jejuni and C. coli and Enterohaemorraghic E. coli 0157:H7. She is a Director of Research, Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Nigerian Institute of Medical Research and Professor of Microbiology at the Mountain Top University, Ogun State. Her lab is one of the main laboratories in Nigeria where actual culture and diagnosis of H. pylori is done for improvement of diagnosis and treatment of this pathogen. She is the only African H. pylori Consultant in the Maastricht VI project, Italy as well as the R.E.G.A.I.N project an European consortium on Real World Gastritis Initiative European consortium both from 29 countries and 42 participants. She is also the President of the African Helicobacter and Microbiota Study Group, a Group comprising Renowned scholars from eight African countries including Nigeria. The countries include: Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa, Cameroon, Egypt, Kenya, Senegal and Morocco. She was also recently elected a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Science (FAS). Prof. Smith did her pre-doctoral training with an European Union scholarship, (EU) in Manchester, UK from 1993-1994, with her PhD programme fully paid for by the EU scholarship. She did her post-doctoral training at the (i) Technical University Hospital, Dresden, Germany with an Alexander von Humboldt (AvH) Fellowship between 1999- 2000. (ii) INSERM Fellowship at the Laboratoire de Bacteriologie, Universite from May – July 2001 and then a return (iii) Humboldt Fellowship at the Max von Pettenkoffer Institut, München from April–September 2003. Prof. Smith is a reviewer to several national and international journals and a member and reviewer of the African German Network of Excellence in Science (AGNES). Prof. Smith was listed under the 19th Edition of ‘Who is Who in the World’ in 2001 She has been listed under the ‘List of 10 Nigerian women pulling their weight in Science’ by Leadership newspaper, 2017 as well as ‘List of 16 Prominent Nigerian women that excelled in Science and Research,’ silverbirdtv.com 2018. Prof. Smith is a member of the National Technical Working Group on AMR Research in Nigeria. A member of the Technical Working Group on Biosafety and Biosecurity in Nigeria organized by Sandia Laboratories US. She is a member of 13 learned Societies and external examiner for MSc, PhD thesis in Nigeria and South Africa. She has won fourteen research grants (PI, collaborator), four equipment grants, two book awards and two awards for hosting two international conferences. She has been involved in several capacity building as well as infrastructure development and has organized several molecular biology hands-on-training workshop since 2009 with 400+ participants in attendance. She has co-supervised fifteen PhD students (three on-going) and 33 MSc students and several BSc students some of whom she was direct supervisor. Prof. Smith started and established the annual molecular biology hands-on-training workshop for 400L students of Biological Sciences in Mountain Top University, Ogun State. She has 187 peer-reviewed publications and two book chapters. She has over 50 attendances at both international and national conferences.