The fellowship, split between visiting professorial residencies at universities in Nigeria and Kenya, aims to work with the university administration at these institutions to build new pathways of international partnership in the areas of curriculum development, research collaboration and institutional capacity development.

“My intent is to expand the current and ongoing relationship with the Institute for Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability, and work towards establishing international education partnership at the institutional level between the University of Port Harcourt (Uni Port) in Nigeria and UMKC,” Adegoke said. “The goal will be to create a pathway for excellent students in the environmental sciences at Uni Port to spend a year at UMKC, and for UMKC students in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences to be able to spend up to six months at Uni Port through the UMKC Semester Abroad program.”

Adegoke joined the UMKC faculty in 2002 and was previously selected for this fellowship in 2014. His areas of expertise include climate-societal issues, especially cross-scale linkages and feedbacks between processes that impact heat stress and air quality in changing urban areas. He also served as an appointee of the Mayor of Kansas City on the city's Environmental Management Commission, chair of the Advisory Committee on Agricultural Resilience in Nigeria and on steering committees and expert panels on global change related programs for various international organizations, including United Nations agencies such as UNESCO, WMO and UNEP.

“I intend to draw on my extensive international network to support the initiatives proposed as part of the envisaged collaboration with University of Port Harcourt,” Adegoke said.

The fellowship will last two months during the upcoming summer semester and is fully funded by the Carnegie Foundation. Hear Adegoke in his own words in this video.