Omowunmi "Wunmi" A. Sadik (born 19 June 1964) is a Nigerian professor, chemist, and inventor working at New Jersey Institute of Technology. She has developed microelectrode biosensors for detection of drugs and explosives and is working on the development of technologies for recycling metal ions from waste, for use in environmental and industrial applications.[1] In 2012, Sadik co-founded the non-profit Sustainable Nanotechnology Organization.[2]
Sadik was born in 1964 in Lagos, Nigeria. Her family included a number of scientists, who supported her interests in physics, chemistry, and biology. She received her bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Lagos in 1985, and went on to receive her master's degree in chemistry in 1987. Sadik then attended Wollongong University in Australia. In 1994, she received her Ph.D. degree in chemistry from Wollongong.[3][4]
A postdoctoral fellowship from the National Research Council supported her as a researcher at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 1994 to 1996.[3] She then accepted a position as an assistant professor of chemistry at the Binghamton UniversityinBinghamton, New York. She was promoted to associate professor in 2002, and full professor in 2005. At that time, she also became director of the Center for Advanced Sensors & Environmental Systems (CASE) at Binghamton. In 2019, Dr. Sadik moved to New Jersey Institute of Technology, has become chair of the Department of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences, and director of the NJIT BioSensors Materials for Advanced Research & Technology (The BioSMART Center).[5] She has been visiting faculty at the Naval Research Laboratories, Cornell University, and Harvard University.[3]
Sadik studies surface chemistry, with particular emphasis on the development of biosensors for use in environmental chemistry.[3] She has found that conducting polymers are especially promising for use in sensing applications.[6][7] She has developed microelectrode biosensors sensitive to trace amounts of organic materials,[8] technology which can be used for drug and bomb detection.[9][10] She is also studying detoxification mechanisms of wastes such as organochlorine compounds in the environment, with the purpose of developing technologies for recycling metal ions from industrial and environmental waste.[11] In one project, microbial enzymes increased the conversion of highly toxic chromium (VI) to non-toxic chromium (III) from 40% to 98%.[12] Sadik is credited with more than 135 peer-reviewed research papers and patent applications. She holds U.S. patents on particular types of bichair oors.[3] In 2011, she was the chairperson of the inaugural Gordon Conference on Environmental Nanotechnology.[13] In 2012, Sadik and Barbara Karn co-founded the Sustainable Nanotechnology Organization, a non-profit, international professional society for the responsible use of nanotechnology worldwide.[14]
^Sadik, O. A.; Zhou, A. L.; Kikandi, S.; Du, N.; Wang, Q.; Varner, K. (2009). "Sensors as tools for quantitation, nanotoxicity and nanomonitoring assessment of engineered nanomaterials". Journal of Environmental Monitoring. 11 (10): 1782–800. doi:10.1039/b912860c. PMID19809701.
^Farrington, Keith (4 March 2010). "Interview: Monitoring the environment". Highlights in Chemical Technology. Royal Society of Chemistry. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
^"Omowunmi "Wunmi" Sadik". Department of Chemistry, State University of New York at Binghamton. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
^"Fellow: Omowunmi A.Sadik". Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Harvard University. Archived from the original on 7 July 2018. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
