Person: Kuku, Aderemi
Aderemi Kuku is a Nigerian mathematician who specialised in K-theory. He taught a wide range of mathematical courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- Aderemi Kuku's first school was Bishop Oluwole Memorial School, Agege, Lagos State.
- This school had been founded in 1913 and when it celebrated its centenary on 13 January 2013, Kuku was honoured with a special award for distinguished accomplishments during the centenary dinner held at the Banquet Hall of the Nigerian Law School, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria.
- At this stage Kuku had options.
- Kuku was advised that a British degree was more highly valued in Nigeria than one from the United States, so he chose to study at Makerere University College (which became the independent Makerere University in 1970).
- Kuku entered Makerere University College in 1962 and, in 1965, was awarded a B.Sc. with Special Honours in Mathematics.
- After graduating, Kuku was appointed as an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Ife in Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria.
- Despite having a university position, Kuku was certainly not going to end his qualifications at the B.Sc. level and he registered at the University of Ibadan to study for a Master's Degree.
- Kuku's M.Sc. was supervised at the University of Ibadan by Joshua Leslie who had studied at the University of Chicago then had undertaken research for a doctorate at the University of Paris.
- Although Leslie was not an expert in algebra, the area that interested Kuku, he had met Hyman Bass at Princeton and realised that there were important new developments in the subject taking place at Princeton.
- Kuku went to the library and began to study the papers that were being produced in this new area.
- This was somewhat of a challenge since he had a supervisor who was not in a position to be much help and, in addition, Kuku had to teach courses at the University of Ife.
- Kuku was awarded an M.Sc. by the University of Ibadan in 1968.
- Dr (Mrs) Kuku was at various times President, Nigerian Association of University Women (Ibadan Branch), a member of Zonta International, Ibadan and member of National Council of Women Societies (Ibadan).
- After receiving an invitation from Hyman Bass to undertake research at Columbia University, New York City, and, after arranging leave from the University of Ibadan, Kuku spent the year 1970-71 at Columbia University.
- During this year Hyman Bass acted as a thesis advisor to Kuku who returned to the University of Ibadan and submitted his thesis On the Whitehead group of p-adic integral group-rings of finite p-groups.
- Kuku's first three papers were (i) Some algebraic K-theoretic applications of the LF and NF functors (1973), (ii) Whitehead group of orders in p-adic semi-simple algebras (1973) and (iii) Some finiteness theorems in the K-theory of orders in p-adic algebras (1976).
- Kuku was promoted to Senior Lecturer in Mathematics in 1976, to Reader in Mathematics in 1980 and, in 1982, to Professor of Mathematics at the University of Ibadan.
- In 1995 Kuku went to Italy when he was appointed as Professor of Mathematics at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste.
- We mentioned above Kuku's first book Abstract algebra (1980).
- It is not only technical mathematical works that Kuku has published for he has contributed many papers on education, science and technology, often with emphasis on the particular problems in Africa or, more specifically, in Nigeria.
- Kuku has received many awards and honours for his outstanding contributions.
- Let us end this biography with Kuku's other interests.
Born 20 March 1941, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, Nigeria.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
African, Origin Nigeria
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- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
