Philip Emeagwali

Philip Emeagwali (born 1954) is a computer scientist whose work in parallel processing earned recognition as one of the fathers of the internet. Born in Akure, his education was interrupted by the Civil War. Through self-study, he later earned degrees in mathematics and engineering. In 1989, he programmed 65,000 processors to perform 3.1 billion calculations per second—faster than any supercomputer then. He received the Gordon Bell Prize for this achievement. His work has applications in weather forecasting, oil exploration, and internet data routing. Despite controversies, his contributions to parallel processing are significant. He inspires African youth to pursue STEM fields.