Assoc. Prof. olanrewaju Emmanuel Fayemi

Dr. Olanrewaju Emmanuel Fayemi is a researcher, academic and research leader whose work spans food microbiology, food safety, public health, nutrition, infectious disease epidemiology and health systems research. He is an Associate Professor at Mountain Top University (MTU), where he has played a leading role in advancing the University's research, innovation and international collaboration agenda. He holds a PhD in Food Microbiology/Food Safety from the University of Pretoria (UP), South Africa, M. Tech in Food Microbiology from the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), and a B.Sc in Microbiology from the University of Ibadan (UI).

Dr. Fayemi has developed a strong portfolio of multidisciplinary, multinational and externally funded research, with collaborations spanning Africa, Europe and North America. He currently serves as Country Principal Investigator/Co-Recipient on the Danida Fellowship Centre-funded TRIPLE-SYNBIO project, a five-year (2026 – 2031), multi-country consortium involving institutions in Denmark, Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana, focused on indigenous synbiotics and health and nutrition challenges among African perinatal women and children under five. The consortium grant is valued at DKK 10 million.

 He previously served as Country PI/Co-Recipient on the FOCAL project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK FCDO (2018-2024), a major international consortium addressing foodborne disease epidemiology, surveillance and control across African low- and middle-income countries, with a project value of US$3.387 million. He has also been a Collaborator on the NIMR-funded FS-VIDAS food safety surveillance project valued at ₦20 million (2024-2026), and a Postdoctoral Researcher/Co-Investigator on the ERAAFRICA, European-African research consortium (2016-2017). His research portfolio reflects a sustained commitment to addressing real-world health and food-system challenges in Africa.

Beyond academic research, Dr. Fayemi has established an impressive record of research-policy engagement and international scientific service. He served on the Federal Ministry of Health's national technical expert panel on Foodborne Disease Surveillance and Response, contributing to the development and validation of Nigeria's National Integrated Guidelines under the One Health framework policy (2023-2028). He also served as an Expert Team Member of the WHO Global Burden of Foodborne Diseases Study Team, contributing to source-attribution research supporting global estimates of foodborne disease burden (2024-2026). He also served as a validation Expert Team Member of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), contributing to the validation of the Africa CDC Food Safety Strategic Framework (2026-2031).

At Mountain Top University, Dr. Fayemi has combined his research and teaching career with significant institutional leadership and research administration. He serves as Ag. Director of the Centre for Research, Innovation and Collaboration (CRIC), Ag. Head of the Department of Public Health and Chair of the University Central Research Committee. Through these roles, he has been involved in strengthening research governance, grant development, research partnerships, capacity building, publication and institutional research visibility.

A committed mentor, Dr. Fayemi has supervised numerous undergraduate students and postgraduate researchers, including Master's and PhD candidates working on subjects ranging from molecular epidemiology and infectious diseases to antimicrobial resistance, metagenomics, fermented foods, probiotics and nutrition. His current portfolio of postgraduate research students demonstrates his continued commitment to nurturing the next generation of African researchers. 

His research has been published in several internationally recognised journals, including Nature Communications, BMC Public Health, Pathogens, Nutrients, Food Science & Nutrition, Journal of Food Composition and Analysis, International Journal of Food Microbiology, Discover Food, among others. He has also contributed to scholarly books.

His career is distinguished not only by publications and grants, but by a broader philosophy of research that “translates scientific evidence into practical solutions, policy and societal impact”. With experience spanning academia, international research consortia, scientific advisory roles, public health policy, research management and global food-safety initiatives, Dr. Fayemi represents a growing generation of African research leaders connecting high-quality science with Africa's most pressing health, nutrition and food-safety challenges. He is happily married and blessed with children.