Get to know me…

Adenike is a PhD student at the School of Biosciences and Medicine, University of Surrey. Her doctoral research investigates the digestion process of a new type of starch and seeks to produce recommendations on its use as a functional food ingredient, to promote healthier nutrition and lifelong health. Previously, she completed her MSc in Advanced Food Safety with Distinction at Queen’s University Belfast and also obtained a BSc in Food Science and Technology from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria.

Over the years, Adenike has developed a passion for positive impact serving in various capacities within organisations that work on social causes, such as the Junior Chamber International, Work of Hope, Nigeria, and AllforDevelopment, Nigeria. As a Youth Scholar, she participated at the 4th Global Women Deliver Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark in May 2016 which was a gathering of over 5,000 people – where she contributed to discussions on the nutrition, health and well-being of girls and women, alongside global leaders from over 169 countries. In 2017, Adenike initiated the SaveLomileju! project which provided renovated classrooms for the only primary school in the Okia-Lomileju community (a village in Western Nigeria), positively impacting about 700 members of the Lomileju community, most especially the children who were out of school.

As an undergraduate, Adenike served on the University’s Water Task Force and Gender Policy Mainstreaming Committee, where she collaborated to ensure a constant supply of clean water within the University campus and create the University’s gender policy. She also served as Registrar and the Chief Jurist of the Student’s Court. She was a member of the winning team that represented her university at the Annual National Entrepreneurship Week, ANEW 2014, organized by the Nigerian Universities Commission in commemoration of the Global Entrepreneurship Week. She was also the only female member of the four-person student team selected from Nigeria for the Rubicon International Entrepreneurship Contest held in Iserlohn, Germany in February 2016.

She is a recipient of the Vice Chancellors Award, which funds her PhD programme at the University of Surrey, and the Commonwealth Shared Scholarship, which funded her masters degree program at Queen’s University Belfast. Her long-term interest is in becoming a food scientist in the field of food science, safety and nutrition, as well as seeing research translated into products and policies that promote well-being. She has a career goal of improving human nutrition and health/well-being through the consumption of nutritious, safe, and functional food products.