Robert Sylvester Okojie is a Nigerian-American engineer.
Robert Okojie was born in Barkin-Ladi, Plateau State, Nigeria, to Juliana Omakhamen Okojie (née Odigie) and Prince Francis A. Okojie, from the royal family of King Ogbidi Okojie (1857-1944) of Uromi who was a ruler of the Esan people in what is now Edo State, Nigeria
After graduation from Ibadan Boys' High School (1980) [1] in Oyo State, Nigeria, Okojie traveled to the United States to attend college in 1986. [2] He attended the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, where he obtained his bachelor's (1991) and master's (1993) in electrical engineering respectively. He further earned his PhD in 1996.
Okojie joined the silicon carbide research group at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland in 1999. [3] He holds over 20 patents relating to high-temperature devices, including several licenses for commercial use that could reduce spacecraft weight, [4] and thereby launch cost and fuel consumption, while leaving additional space for scientific payloads. [2]
He demonstrated the world's first thermally stable ohmic contact metallization on silicon carbide at record-breaking temperatures for extended periods of time. [3] Paving way for high temperature sensors and electronics at these temperatures that can substantially improve safety and efficiency, as well as directly impacting the air quality around airports. [3]
He equally developed the first accelerated stress test protocol published in the IEEE international Reliability Physics Symposium.
Okojie has received accolades, including in 2009 the NASA Abe Silverstein Medal for Research and in 2012 the Glenn Research Distinguished Publication Award. Scientist of the Year by the National Technical Association for advancing the state-of-the-art of MEMS for use in harsh environments and in 2007 was a recipient of the Cleveland Executive Board Wings of Excellence award. [3]
On November 22, 2020, he was inducted into NASA Inventors Hall of Fame, making him the 35th recipient of the prestigious honor and just the fourth African Black person to be inducted. [5] [6]
Robert Norton Noyce, nicknamed "the Mayor of Silicon Valley", was an American physicist and entrepreneur who co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957 and Intel Corporation in 1968. He was also credited with the realization of the first monolithic integrated circuit or microchip made with silicon, which fueled the personal computer revolution and gave Silicon Valley its name.
Silicon carbide (SiC), also known as carborundum, is a hard chemical compound containing silicon and carbon. A semiconductor, it occurs in nature as the extremely rare mineral moissanite, but has been mass-produced as a powder and crystal since 1893 for use as an abrasive. Grains of silicon carbide can be bonded together by sintering to form very hard ceramics that are widely used in applications requiring high endurance, such as car brakes, car clutches and ceramic plates in bulletproof vests. Large single crystals of silicon carbide can be grown by the Lely method and they can be cut into gems known as synthetic moissanite.
NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field is a NASA center within the cities of Brook Park and Cleveland between Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and the Rocky River Reservation of Cleveland Metroparks, with a subsidiary facility in Sandusky, Ohio. Its director is James A. Kenyon. Glenn Research Center is one of ten major NASA facilities, whose primary mission is to develop science and technology for use in aeronautics and space. As of May 2012, it employed about 1,650 civil servants and 1,850 support contractors on or near its site.
Janet Lynn Kavandi, a native of Carthage, Missouri, is an American scientist and a NASA astronaut. She is a veteran of three Space Shuttle missions, served as NASA's Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office, and was the Center Director at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio from March 2016 until her retirement from NASA in September 2019. She was inducted into the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2019.
Edward Goodrich Acheson was an American chemist. Born in Washington, Pennsylvania, he was the inventor of the Acheson process, which is still used to make silicon carbide (carborundum) and later a manufacturer of carborundum and graphite.
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Plutonium-238 is a radioactive isotope of plutonium that has a half-life of 87.7 years.
Lonnie George Johnson is an American inventor, aerospace engineer, and entrepreneur, best known for inventing the bestselling Super Soaker water gun in 1989. He was formerly employed at the U.S. Air Force and NASA, where he worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Olga D. González-Sanabria is a Puerto Rican scientist and inventor. She is the highest-ranking Hispanic at NASA Glenn Research Center, and a member of the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame. González-Sanabria, Director of the Engineering and Technical Services, is responsible for planning and directing a full range of integrated services including engineering, fabrication, testing, facility management and aircraft services for the Glenn Research Center. She played an instrumental role in the development of the "Long Cycle-Life Nickel-Hydrogen Batteries" which helps enable the International Space Station power system.
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George Edward Alcorn Jr. is an American physicist, engineer, inventor, and professor. He taught at Howard University and the University of the District of Columbia, and worked primarily for IBM and NASA. He has over 30 inventions and 8 patents resulting in his induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2015.
Esan North-East is a Local Government Area located in Edo State of Nigeria. It has an estimated population of 119,346. Its headquarters are in Uromi/Uzea.
Uromi is a city located in north-eastern Esan, a sub-ethnic group of the Edo people in Edo state, Nigeria. At various points in Uromi's history, the city and people have been an important part of the Benin Empire.
Dawon Kahng was a Korean-American electrical engineer and inventor, known for his work in solid-state electronics. He is best known for inventing the MOSFET, along with his colleague Mohamed Atalla, in 1959. Kahng and Atalla developed both the PMOS and NMOS processes for MOSFET semiconductor device fabrication. The MOSFET is the most widely used type of transistor, and the basic element in most modern electronic equipment.
Zephyr is a concept of a robotic Venus rover for a mission called Venus Landsailing Rover. This mission concept would place a rover on the surface of Venus that would be propelled by the force of the wind. The rover would be launched together with a Venus orbiter that would be a communications relay and perform remote atmospheric studies.
Julian Manly Earls is an American physicist who worked for NASA for over forty years. He has been awarded two NASA Exceptional Achievement Medals and was inducted into the Presidential Rank Award of the Senior Executive Service by both Bill Clinton and George Bush.
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