Ijeoma Uchegbu is Professor of Pharmaceutical Nanoscience at UCL and one of the UK’s leading experts in drug delivery, making landmark contributions to both science and equality.
When Professor Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu set out to become a scientist, the path ahead was far from straightforward. Born in Hackney to a Nigerian family, she went into foster care at a young age before moving to post-war Nigeria as a teenager. She studied Pharmacy there before returning to the UK as a single mother of three to begin a PhD at the UCL School of Pharmacy, overcoming severe financial hardship to complete her studies.
Following research posts at the University of Strathclyde, Ijeoma returned to the School of Pharmacy in 2006 as Chair in Pharmaceutical Nanoscience, later founding company Nanomerics to translate her discoveries into real-world medicines.
Ijeoma’s research focuses on designing more effective medicines with fewer side effects. One of her proudest scientific achievements has been taking a molecule she designed, which enables drugs to be safely targeted to diseased tissue, into human clinical trials.
Her team is internationally recognised for developing non-invasive, nanoparticle technologies that can deliver medicines and genes to hard-to-reach parts of the body, including the brain.
The thing about the science is the unknown, isn't it? It's uncovering something that no one else has ever seen and thinking, I can't believe I'm the first person to witness this. And now I have the opportunity to tell the world about it.
Alongside her scientific career, Ijeoma has advanced equality and inclusion at UCL. As the Provost’s Envoy for Race Equality, she led a landmark eugenics inquiry that resulted in the removal of names honouring prominent eugenicists from UCL spaces. She has described this as the achievement of which she is most proud, recognising the impact such symbols can have on students and staff.
Her wider equality work has also helped to drive progress on racial equity in promotions and the awarding gap for racially minoritised students.
A passionate advocate for young black women in science, she hopes her story shows future generations that there are no limits to what they can achieve.
I want them to view the world as a world with no barriers. Because if this person can do it, why can’t I?
Today, alongside her role at UCL, Ijeoma is President of Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, a public science communicator, and author of Chain Reaction, The Wondrous Chemistry of Everyday Life. Her work has inspired scientists and changemakers across the world.
