Abdul–Aziz Yakubu (4 April 1958 – 14 August 2022) was a mathematical biologist. Yakubu was a professor at

Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...

for over 20 years and served as chair of the mathematics department from 2004 to 2014.
Howard University Mourns the Loss of Abdul-Aziz Yakubu
'. National Association of Mathematicians Newsletter. 2022. Volume 53 (issue 2):15.

Early life and education

Abdul-Aziz Yakubu was born on 4 April 1958 in

Accra Accra (; or ''Gaga''; ; Ewe: Gɛ; ) is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , had a population of ...

, the capital city of

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

. He attended

Accra Academy Accra Academy is a Single-sex education, boys' high school located at Bubuashie near Kaneshie in the Greater Accra Region, Ghana. It admits both boarding and day students. Founded as a private school in 1931, it gained the status of a Government ...

for high school education. Yakubu became interested in math while studying at the University of Ghana - Legon, where he earned his B.S in mathematics and computer science in 1982. In 1985, Yakubu earned his master's degree in applied mathematics from the

University of Toledo The University of Toledo (UToledo or UT) is a Public university, public research university in Toledo, Ohio, United States. It is the northernmost campus of the University System of Ohio. The university also operates a Health Science campus, ...

in Ohio. Before continuing to Howard University, he attended

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and p ...

and received his doctoral degree in applied mathematics in 1990. For his Ph.D., he wrote his dissertation, "Discrete time competitive systems" under the advisement of John Franke. Yakubu said in a 2020 interview with The Network of Minorities in Mathematical Sciences, "Once you have survived a storm you won’t be bothered by the rain

Career

Yakubu’s first research experience was at North Carolina State University, and his first faculty position was held at Howard University, a Historically black college or university, historically black research university (HBCU) in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

While at Howard he spent a year as a long-term visitor by participating in “Mathematics in Biology” at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

. The program at the University of Minnesota allowed him to make connections to further his positive contributions to the world, especially his research on infectious diseases in Africa. Two years after his long-term visit, he took a two-year leave from Howard University in 2002 to visit the Department of Statistics and Computational Biology at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, where he collaborated with

Carlos Castillo-Chavez Carlos Castillo-Chavez (born March 29, 1952) is a Mexican-American mathematician. He held positions as a Regents Professor and the Joaquín Bustoz Jr. Professor of Mathematical Biology at Arizona State University. Castillo-Chavez founded the M ...

. After his Cornell experience, he returned to Howard University to focus on mathematical biology. Yakubu had a successful collaboration in scholarly work on exploited fisheries with scientists at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center of

Woods Hole, Massachusetts Woods Hole is a census-designated place in the town of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. It lies at the extreme southwestern corner of Cape Cod, near Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands. The population was 78 ...

. He worked on projects that investigated biodiversity and infectious diseases with

Avner Friedman Avner Friedman (; born November 19, 1932) is Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Physical Sciences at Ohio State University. His primary field of research is partial differential equations, with interests in stochastic processes, mathemati ...

of the Mathematical Bioscience Institute students at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

and his graduate students at Howard University. His research on mathematical biology helped him connect with students and researchers internationally. Yakubu has attended and presented his contributions at several research conferences and workshops in Europe and Asia. The

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

funded DIMACS-MBI Africa initiative, led by Avner Friedmann, Marty Golubitsky, Fred Roberts as well as the NSF-funded Masamu project of Overton Jenda. It made it possible for him to give several lectures in

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

, Ghana,

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

, and

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

. Yakubu left on sabbatical leave to MBI.DIMACS in Piscataway, New Jersey, MBI in Columbus, Ohio, NIMBioS in Knoxville, Tennessee, and similar mathematical biology institutes. Yakubu published his research in several academic journals like the

Bulletin of Mathematical Biology The Society for Mathematical Biology (SMB) is an international association co-founded in 1972 in the United States by George Karreman, Herbert Daniel Landahl and (initially chaired) by Anthony Bartholomay for the furtherance of joint scientific acti ...

Journal of Mathematical Biology '' Journal of Mathematical Biology'' is a peer review, peer-reviewed, mathematics journal, published by Springer Verlag. Founded in 1974, the journal publishes articles on mathematical biology. In particular, papers published in this journal 'shou ...

Mathematical Biosciences ''Mathematical Biosciences'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing work that provides new concepts or new understanding of biological systems using mathematical models, or methodological articles likely to find application to mul ...

SIAM Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

and Journal of Applied Mathematics. He was a member and held leadership roles in professional mathematics organizations, including the Society for Mathematical Biology, Mathematical Bioscience Institute of the Ohio State and

DIMACS The Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science (DIMACS) is a collaboration between Rutgers University, Princeton University, and the research firms AT&T, Bell Labs, Applied Communication Sciences, and NEC. It was founded in ...

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

. From 2007 to 2016, he served as Chair of the World Outreach Committee of the Society for Mathematical Biology. Yakubu died on August 14, 2022. As of November 2022, the editors of the Journal of Biological Dynamics are working on a special issue to be published in remembrance of Yakubu. The special edition will cover topics inspired by or related to Yakubu's work in mathematics and population biology. On 6-7 April 2024, during the Spring Eastern Sectional Meeting at

, the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

held a ''Special Session on the Mathematics of Infectious Diseases'' in memory of Dr. Yakubu. Over the two days, 19 presentations were made in his honor.

Personal life

Though details about his personal life are scarce, when asked his pinnacle private achievement, Abdul-Aziz Yakubu proudly claimed that nothing compared to marrying his beloved wife.

Selected publications

* ''Mathematical Approaches For Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases: Models, Methods and Theory'', Springer-Verlag, Volume 125, Edited by

with Sally Blower,

Pauline van den Driessche Pauline van den Driessche (born 1941) is a British and Canadian applied mathematician who is a professor emerita in the department of mathematics and statistics at the University of Victoria, where she has also held an affiliation in the departm ...

Denise Kirschner Denise Ellen Kirschner is an American mathematical biologist and immunologist whose research topics include granulomas, HIV, tuberculosis, and the mechanisms by which disease pathogens interact with and persist in their hosts. She is a professo ...

and Abdul-Aziz Yakubu (2002) * ''Mathematical Approaches For Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases: Models, Methods and Theory'', Springer-Verlag, Volume 126, Edited by Carlos Castillo-Chavez with Sally Blower, Pauline van den Driessche, Denise Kirschner and Abdul-Aziz Yakubu (2002)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yakubu, Abdul-Aziz 1958 births 2022 deaths Howard University faculty African mathematicians 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians American people of Ghanaian descent University of Ghana alumni Scientists from Accra University of Toledo alumni North Carolina State University alumni 21st-century African-American scientists 20th-century African-American scientists