SOLOMON OYAKHIRE (CHEMICAL ENGINEERING) Solomon was first introduced to research in his third year at University of Lagos by Dr. Ayo Daniel. Under his guidance, Solomon worked alongside four of his classmates on the improvement of a process for converting shea-butter nuts into shea-butter. His undergraduate thesis was supervised by Dr. Faith U. Babalola, whose profound mentorship and guidance sharpened his research skills and motivated him to pursue a PhD in Chemical Engineering. After graduating at the top of his class from the Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Lagos, he was admitted into the PhD program in Chemical Engineering at Stanford University. His current research work is focused on designing interfaces that make lithium metal batteries more stable. He insists that Dr Tolu’s passion and brilliance played a huge role in his decision to pursue the path of teaching and research, and for that he remains eternally grateful. Solomon is also a Knight-Hennessy Scholar at Stanford which is one of the most prestigious scholarships in the world with an acceptance rate of approximately 1%.