Meet the young Professor from Yobe who becomes the FIRST Nigerian-based neuroscientist
Meet the young Professor from Yobe who becomes the FIRST Nigerian-based neuroscientist
UmarFarouk123 
Professor Mahmud Maina Bukar stands tall as one of Africa’s brightest scientific minds, breaking new ground in neuroscience and global health research.
He is the first Nigerian-based neuroscientist - and one of only two in Africa - to receive the prestigious Wellcome Trust Career Development Award, one of the most competitive fellowships in global biomedical science.
Prof. Bukar is leading groundbreaking studies on dementia in African populations, addressing an area long neglected in global health.
He is the Director of the Biomedical Science Research and Training Centre (BioRTC), Damaturu, Yobe State, established in 2021 with the support of the Yobe State Government. His vision is to grow BioRTC into a world-class research hub that bridges global inequities in science, builds local capacity, and improves health outcomes.
He serves as a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Sussex, UK, while maintaining strong collaborations across the UK, USA, Netherlands, and Nigeria.
He is the Honorary Special Adviser on Science, Research, and Innovation to the Executive Governor of Yobe State.
Prof. Bukar is the Principal Investigator of the award-winning project “From Cohort to Molecular Insights: Integrating an African-Centric iPSC Biobank to Decipher the Role of APOE and Ancestry in Alzheimer’s Disease.”
He is establishing Africa’s first open-access induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) biobank using Nigerian donor samples - a pioneering step for biomedical science on the continent.
From Yobe to the world, Professor Mahmud Maina Bukar is proving that cutting-edge science can flourish in Africa. He continues to inspire the next generation of researchers while reshaping global understanding of brain health and dementia.
