Engr. Prof. Oritsegbemi (Ogbemi) Omatete was born in Ugborodo in October 1939 and attended First Baptist School Sapele (1945-53) and Govt. College Ughelli (1953-60) all in Delta State.

In 1958, he won the inaugural Shell BP Oil post-secondary scholarship for being first in the Western Region in their oil technology examination. In 1961, he won the inaugural African Scholarship Program for American Universities (ASPAU) to Princeton University from where he has three degrees: BSE (1964) and MSE (1967) in Chemical Engineering and MPA in Public Affairs (1967). After a PhD (1971) and a post-doc from the University of California, Berkeley, and rejecting lucrative offers from multinational chemical companies, he returned home in 1972 to the University of Ife (UNIFE).

Prof. Omatete was a foundation staff member of both the Chemical Engineering. Dept at UNIFE, now Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), (1972-74) where he taught the first Nigerian trained chemical engineers, who graduated in 1973; and that at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), (1974-1989) where he taughttheir first graduates in 1976 and became Associate Professor and Head of the Dept. Prof. Omatete was among those who introduced the unit course System and Metrication into the Nigerian engineering program. While at UNILAG, he was the honorary National Secretary of the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers who helped write its constitution and represented the Society on the Council of Bida Polytechnic. Thus, Prof Omatete is a pioneer of both Chemical Engineering Education and Chemical Engineering Practice in Nigeria.

In 1987, Prof. Omatete joined the US Dept of Energy’s(DoE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), formerly Atomic Energy Lab, in Tennessee, as their first Nigerian researcher. There, he co-invented the Gelcasting process for casting large complexly shaped ceramic parts and has five US patents. His publications on the process have been cited several thousand times and are still being cited internationally. He was the first researcher sent from the US Dept. of Energy’s Lab (1996-98) to a private company, Honeywell Int., to supervise a process licensed from the Lab – a pilot plant to demonstrate Gelcasting. After retirement from ORNL in 2003, he consulted for DoE, helping to select proposals to be funded. He was a Professor of chemical engineering and sub dean of the School of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, 2012 – 2014.

Prof. Omatete is a fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering, of the Nigerian Society of Engineers and the Nigerian Society of Chem Engr., Life member of the American Institute of Chem. Engr and a senior member of the American Ceramic Society. He has several awards, including the prestigious US R&D award, the Advanced Technology Award by the Inventors Club of America, the Award of Excellence in Technology Transfer, and the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Nigerian Academy of Engineers and by Government College Ughelli (GCU) Old Boys Association, to name a few.

Prof. Omatete is an active alumnus of his alma maters, Princeton University and especially Government College Ughelli, where he founded the North American Branch in 1995 and was President General Worldwide (PGWW) of its Old Boys’ Association 2014 -2018.

A lifetime sportsman: GCU athletics team at Grier Cup, Western Region team in cricket at Morocco Clark Cup, and at Princeton University, soccer (football) All Ivy first team and honorable mention All American team. Prof. Omatete is still an avid golfer.

Prof. Omatete lost his wife in June last year after 58 years of marriage. has three sons and four grandchildren.