Estella Atekwana

Who are they?

Estella Atekwana, born Estella Akweseh Nkwate on 13 September 1961, grew up in Cameroon and began pre-medical studies at the University of Yaoundé. Moving to the United States, she earned a BS (1983) and an MS (1986) in geology at Howard University, then a PhD in geophysics at Dalhousie University, Canada, in 1991. After posts at several American universities she headed Oklahoma State University's school of geology and became a dean at the University of Delaware in 2017.

What made them famous

She is regarded as a pioneer of biogeophysics, a field that studies how micro-organisms transform rocks and alter their geophysical signatures, particularly at hydrocarbon-contaminated sites. She also works on the birth of continental rifts in Malawi and Botswana. Since 1 August 2021 she has been Dean of the College of Letters and Science at the University of California, Davis, and she is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Key facts

• At secondary school in Cameroon a teacher tried to discourage her from a geology class because she was a girl; she finished top of the class.
• The Society of Exploration Geophysicists gave her the Reginald Fessenden Award in 2021.
• She is involved in a project using smartphones to collect geophysical data for universities with little equipment.