In Memoriam

ICTP was saddened to learn of the passing of ICTP Postgraduate Diploma alumna Chiamaka Okoli, a 2012 graduate of the programme who leveraged her ICTP experience to eventually earn a PhD.

Okoli "was one of the strongest Diploma students in my Introduction to Cosmology class at ICTP," recalled ICTP Staff Associate Ravi Sheth, Okoli's thesis supervisor who guided her budding interest in cosmology.  After completing the Postgraduate Diploma programme, Okoli continued her graduate studies at the Perimeter Institute and the University of Waterloo, successfully defending her PhD thesis, titled "Dark Matter and Neutrinos in the Foggy Universe", last December. Her doctoral supervisor at the University of Waterloo, Niayesh Afshordi, wrote a detailed blog post about Okoli, recounting her struggles as a PhD student and new mother, and her comeback from a near-fatal aneurysm after months of recovery, only to be struck again in May, this time fatally.