I am Babajide Milton Macaulay, a
native of Nigeria and an alumnus of the University of Greenwich. Before winning the Commonwealth Scholarship (Shared category) in 2012 to
pursue a Master’s degree in Sustainable Environmental Management at the UoG, I
completed a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) degree in Biology at the Federal
University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Nigeria. 
On my graduation in the Summer of 2014,
I was privileged to be the pioneer recipient of the Natural Resources Institute
(NRI) Prize for the Best MSc Thesis on the Sustainable Environmental Management
programme for the 2012-2013 session. I also made a Distinction on the MSc
programme, a feat I was only able to achieve through sheer resilience. My MSc
thesis was entitled, ‘Bioremediation of Oil spills: A review of challenges for research
advancement.’ It investigated the various challenges of cleaning up oil spills
on land and water environments.
I returned to Nigeria immediately
after completing my Master’s degree and resumed as a Graduate Assistant in my
home University (FUTA) in Nigeria. About a month after my return, I was promoted
to the position of Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Biology, due to
my acquisition of a Master’s degree and therefore, given a more elaborate
lecturing role. I taught undergraduate courses such as Plant Ecology, General
Ecology, Plant Physiology and a host of Storage Entomology courses from 2014 to
2015. During this period, I also supervised the undergraduate research projects
of 10 students.
In September 2015, I won another
Commonwealth Scholarship (Regular category) to pursue a PhD degree in Environmental
Geochemistry and Geomicrobiology at the University of Manchester (UoM). My PhD
project focused on ‘understanding the
roles of anaerobes and organic substances in the mobilisation of arsenic in
groundwater.’ Since 2015, a series of laboratory experiments have
led me to produce novel techniques for the capture of desired anaerobes at the
subsurface for biogeochemistry research as well as the creation of an in-situ procedure of carrying out
arsenic mobilisation studies to complement lab-based findings.
In less than a year, I am expected to hand in my PhD thesis and defend it in a
viva voca that will last for some hours, which marks the end of an academic chapter
and the birth a new academic dream! Learning never stops for me!
In terms of social engagements, I currently manage my PhD research
group’s blog, ‘Manchester Organic
Geochemistry Group (MOGG)’ which was created in 2017. Please copy the link
to the blog to see what we do: https://manchesterogg.wordpress.com/
I also created a Facebook Page, ‘The Shoulders of Giants (TSG)’ in 2016
to provide scholarship information for interested candidates but it was
re-branded in 2017 with additional functions such as giving tips for scholarship
applications and also inviting senior scholars to answer direct questions posed
by young protégés. The FB page now has over 800 followers and I have two
volunteers who are helping me manage it. At the end of 2017, 12 followers of the page who have also personally benefited
from my guidance over the years, all got international scholarships to pursue
their desired postgraduate programmes abroad. 
In addition, in 2016, I initiated
the creation of a 13-man research group known as ‘Futurists’, with the view to developing alternative herbal-based
drug for the future, mainly for tropical diseases. The current focus of the
research group is the development of an alternative drug for common anti-malarial drugs. So far, the results have been very impressive. Hopefully, in time, we will get the answers we so desperately seek!
In January
2018, I created an online educational consulting platform, ‘iLLUMANIA’, which provides educational
services such as dissertation writing supervision/essay coursework guidance; CV
restructuring; personal statement review; scholarship application support;
career counselling. Currently, I have eight consultants working with me but an
urgent expansion is in sight as public reception has been fantastic and the
number of clients doubling and the number of enquiries tripling daily! To learn
more about iLLUMANIA, please visit
our website www.illumania.org. 
The last four years have been
super bright for me and I hope I will be able to sustain the trend into the
future as there are numerous plans underway to leave my footprints in the sands
of time before I draw my last breath.
Thank you, Lynne, for publicising my activities on the Medway students' blog. I am grateful!!
