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Portrait of
Alabo Prof. Kelvin D. H. Bob-Manuel, KSC

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Founder & Chairman, Board of Trustees

Alabo Prof. Kelvin D. H. Bob-Manuel, KSC

Alabo Sir (Engr.) Prof. Kelvin Datonye Bob-Manuel Founder, Prof. Kelvin Datonye Bob-Manuel Foundation Alabo Sir (Engr.) Prof. Kelvin Datonye Bob-Manuel is a pioneering Nigerian marine engineer and academic from the Manuel (Owukori) Royal House of Abonnema, Rivers State. Trained as a marine engineering artificer in Britain's Royal Navy before earning his PhD from Queen Mary, University of London, he joined Rivers State University in 1986 and in 2006 became the first Professor of Marine Engineering in Sub-Saharan Africa, having led the department recognized by the IMO as the region's first to award B.Tech, M.Tech, and PhD degrees in the field. With over 70 publications, an international gold medal for research, and decades chairing accreditation panels across West Africa, he has also served as the first General Manager of Rivers Marine Transport Service and held senior leadership roles in the Nigerian Society of Engineers and the Anglican Church. He founded the Prof. Kelvin Datonye Bob-Manuel Foundation to provide sea-service training and mentorship for the next generation of marine engineers.

Title

Role

Founder and Chairman, Board of Trustees, Prof. Kelvin Bob-Manuel Foundation

Field

Marine / Mechanical Engineering

Education

Prof. Bob-Manuel trained as a Royal Navy marine engineering artificer in the UK before earning his Bachelor's from North East London Polytechnic, Master's from Southampton University, and PhD from Queen Mary, University of London (1983).

Career highlights

Prof. Kelvin Datonye Bob-Manuel is Sub-Saharan Africa's first Professor of Marine Engineering, a Royal Navy-trained, Queen Mary-PhD academic who spent nearly four decades building Nigeria's marine engineering education system at Rivers State University.]

Distinctions

Prof. Bob-Manuel's distinctions include being Sub-Saharan Africa's first Professor of Marine Engineering, a gold medalist from the Institute of Engineers, India, the only African presenter at two major international maritime conferences, and a Fellow of the UK's Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology — honors reflected in his traditional Alabo chieftaincy title and Anglican knighthood.

Alabo Prof. Kelvin D. H. Bob-Manuel, KSC

Why the Foundation exists

See the Foundation he built.

Milestones

Thought Leadership & Lectures