Grace Alele-Williams
Nigerian mathematician (1932–2022)
Grace Awani Alele-Williams OON, FMAN, FNAE (16 December 1932 – 25 March 2022) was a Nigerian professor of mathematics education, who made history as the first Nigerian woman to receive a doctorate, and the first female vice-chancellor at any Nigerian university, at the University of Benin.
Early life and education
Grace Awani Alele was born to Itsekiri parents in Warri, Western Region (present-day Delta State), Nigeria on 16 December 1932. She attended Government School, Warri, Queen's College, Lagos and the University College of Ibadan (now University of Ibadan). She obtained a master's degree in mathematics while teaching at Queen's School, Ede in Osun State in 1957 and her PhD degree in mathematics education at the University of Chicago (U.S.) in 1963, thereby making her the first Nigerian woman to be awarded a doctorate. Grace Alele was married later that year and became known as Grace Alele-Williams. She returned to Nigeria for a couple of years' postdoctoral work at the University of Ibadan before joining the University of Lagos in 1965.
Career
Alele-Williams's teaching career started at Queen's School, Ede, Osun State, where she was a mathematics teacher from 1954 to 1957. She left for the University of Vermont to become a graduate assistant and later assistant professor. From 1963 to 1965, Alele-Williams was a postdoctoral research fellow, department (and institute) of education, University of Ibadan from where she was appointed a professor of mathematics at the University of Lagos in 1976.
She had a special interest in women's education.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5590971. VIAF identifies the subject as 43579263. The Library of Congress control number is n97002934. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1932, 2022, 1957 and 1963.
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This entry incorporates text from “Grace Alele-Williams” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.