Winner. Scientist of the Year 2020

Mouhamadou Bassir Diop

Academic title, degree: Professor, Ph.D.
Fields of science: Materials Science
Research interest: Geopolymer
Institution: Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar
Position: Professor
Country: Senegal

In 1991 Dr. Mouhamadou Bassir Diop submitted a very productive thesis on standardized sand for Portland cement classification at the National Institute for Applied Sciences in Rennes, France (African Patent delivered by the African Organization for Intellectual Property, OAPI Arrêtée OAPI, Nº 10469 19/05/1998). In 1999 he earns a degree in Explosives Technology from Nitro-Bickford in France.

Member of the Materials Research Society (MRS) since 2003, Dr. Diop published numerous papers on materials characterization, building materials, and developed several patents. He collaborates with the International Materials Institute. In 2003 Dr. Diop stayed at Princeton University in USA as a Visiting Professor. In September 2005 he spent his sabbatical at Penn State University in USA and did intensive research work as a Fulbright Scholar. With the help of the International Materiasl Institute on "New Functionality in Glasses", since 2007 Dr. Diop created in his University the African Glass Center to develop glass study and research in Africa. He is a Referee of three of the most important international journals on materials: "Journal of Construction and Building Materials", "Applied Clay Sciences", and "Journal of Applied Physics and Applied Clay Science". Dr. Diop also collaborates on the international level with the Study Group of Pyroclasts of the Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand II; the Laboratory of Materials of INSA de Rennes in France; the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in South Africa; and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University in USA.

Dr. Diop has writting the book untitled “Low Temperature Processes” (https://novapublishers.com/shop/low-temperature-processes/). Sixty two copies of this book have been sold in 2012 in USA.

The most recent of his achievements is developing a low temperature process to make bricks for construction (By M. Diop, et al. PSU Invention Disclosure No. 2006-3160, USA). Brick made with this technology is well suited in areas where energy is unavailable; the bricks are cured in the sun. The process does not generate chemical pollutants like fired clay bricks. It can use by-product materials like industrial and mining waste enabling brick makers to solve environmental problems. This technology appears to be a solution for African developing countries like Senegal, but for developed countries also, if a clean technology is desired.

Dr. Diop made a very important discovery in the corrosion of glass. He has shown that a few percent of boron oxide in the glass can dramatically influence the kinetics and physical effects of weathering. Use of Senegalese extra siliceous sand on fabrication of bottle and plate glass, the study was supported by NSF International Materials Institute on "New Functionality in Glasses" during his Fulbright scholarship at Penn State University. His results led to the project of a factory of glass, with a capacity of fusion of 240 tons per day at Diogo (Western Senegal). Thus, he contributed to the advent of a factory of glass, the first in Africa in the South of the Sahara.

He developed also a triple activation process using calcium oxide enabling to fabricate cheap construction materials by pouzzolanic reaction (Fabrication of Construction Materials: Bricks, Tiles etc. by Triple Activation, African Patent issued by the African Organization for Intellectual Property, Arrêtée OAPI Nº 13366 of 29/12/2006).

He recently contributed with three chapters for the book sponsored by Canadian International Development Research Centre "Portrait des connaissances sur l'utilisation de la terre stabilisée dans le secteur du bâtiment au Sénégal: rapport technique final". The chapters have been provisionally accepted for publication in the book under the working title "Industrial Waste", ISBN 979-953-307-543-2.

To share knowledge and know-how in the field of Construction Materials, Dr. Mouhamadou Bassir Diop created a special web site.

All the efforts of Dr. Diop were recognized by the international scientific community which awarded him with ISESCO International Sciences Prize 2008 in the field of Geology. Later Dr. Diop was elected as a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences (2012).

In July 2013 Prof. Dr. Diop has been nominated the General Inspector of the state of Senegal, by his Excellency President Macky SALL (the Presidency of the Republic of Senegal).

In 2013 he was a member of Scientific Committee of the International Congress of Materials and Structural Stability CMSS and a Keynote Lecturer.

In June-July 2014 he was a Visiting Professor at the Ecole Centrale de Lille, France.

In April 2014 Prof. Dr. Diop presented keynote lectures in the field of Materials Sciences at the General Assembly of the African Academy of Sciences (AA) in Brazzaville, The Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In November 2014 he was appointed a member of Scientific Committee of the International Congress of Materials in Alger, with keynote lectures.