Proffesor Justus Nwaoga And The Mimosa Innovation

PROFESSOR JUSTUS NWAOGA is the Chief Technologist in the Department of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Nigeria Nsukka. He discovered that Mimosa can utilize energy from the sun and thus, he converted Mimosa's sensitivity to sunlight into what is now called the Mimosa Solar Panels.

Mimosa is a medicinal plant of African origin. A local weed that grows and thrives in the tropics. It has physical features characterized by its ability to close the leaves at night or when touched, and open the leaves at sunrise or daylight. This observation led to the scientific extraction and isolating the material responsible for the behavior.

In simple terms, the Mimosa innovation is the making of solar cells from mimosa plant weed. It has been found that the material responsible for this activity is black silicon. 

Chosen from more than 900 applications from 45 countries, Professor Justus Nwaoga in 2013 was among ten African innovators who were nominated for developing practical solutions to some of the continent’s most intractable problems. 

The Innovation Prize for Africa is an award founded by the African Innovation Foundation and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. It mobilizes African innovators and entrepreneurs by providing a total of $150 000 to winners who deliver market-oriented solutions for African-led development. The prize encourages private equity investors, government and development leaders to invest across sectors and build a climate that fuels Africa’s economic growth. Professor Nwaoga was nominated specifically for developing Mimosa .

Mimosa is happening at a time when scientists all over the world are looking for alternatives to fossil fuels. This innovation has been scaled up by the establishment farms for cultivation of mimosa weed. This has given rise to an increased yield of the raw material and subsequent increase in the number of mimosa solar panels.

The Mimosa Solar Panels is primarily aimed at providing a cheap supply of solar electric energy in various parts of the world.