A citation on L. S. O. Liverpool given before his  inaugural lecture by Professor J. A. A Ajayi, Professor of Zoology, University of Jos.

UNIVERSITY OF JOS INAUGURAL LECTURE SERIES

Mr. Vice-Chancellor, Principal Officers, Professors, Members of Senate, Distinguished Academics, Ladies and Gentlemen. Standing tall before you is Professor Lennox Samuel Onipede Liverpool, B.Sc. (Hons.) (Durham), M.Sc., Ph.D. (London), D.I.C. (Imperial College of Science and Technology of the University of London), a Pure Mathematician and Professor of Mathematics, in the Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Jos.

"Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it". Samuel Johnson (1709-1794) - an English Lexicographer and author.

This evening, a renowned mathematician will serve as the source of our information on "Paradoxes of the Complex".

Lennox Samuel Onipede Liverpool was born in the 1940's in Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone on the Atlantic coast of West Africa. This academic giant graduated with B.Sc. honours in Mathematics in 1968 from the University of Durham. Before earning the first academic degree, Lennox won several scholarships and prizes. In 1964 he won the National Prestige Scholarship for University Studies, awarded by the Government of the Republic of Sierra Leone; the Solomon Pratt Prize for outstanding performance in Mathematics at Fourah Bay College in 1967; and the Anglo-Sierra Leonean Society Prize for the most outstanding graduate of the year 1968.

In those days the B.Sc. degree was enough for young Lennox to take up a white collar job, even as a Manager, but that was not to be, because of his love for higher education. Instead, he in late 1968, registered as a postgraduate student at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London, and continued to perform brilliantly in his academic work. His diligence attracted the attention of the authorities of the Sierra Leone Development Company (DELCO) which awarded him full scholarship for 3 years, 1968 - 1971, at Imperial College, and in between, in 1969, the State Department of the Government of the United States of America added yet another award, the African Youth Leadership Programme Award in recognition of Lennox's excellence in academicism. He utilised the awards very well and obtained the University of London M.Sc and Ph.D. Degrees in Pure Mathematics in 1969 and 1971 respectively. He added the D.I.C. (Diploma of Imperial College) before the year, 1971, ran out.

Now a Doctor of Philosophy in Pure Mathematics, Dr. Liverpool joined the staff of the Department of Mathematics, Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, as a Lecturer in 1971, and rose to the rank of a Senior Lecturer in 1978. Between 1974 and 1980, Dr. Lennox Samuel Onipede Liverpool was further recognised for excellent research and was awarded grants including one from the International Mathematical Union (IMU) to attend the International Congress of Mathematicians in Vancouver, Canada, in 1974; eight yearly (1974-1982) grants from the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy, to attend seminars in Europe; a Fulbright Fellowship made tenable at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America in 1977; and an eminently deserved appointment as Visiting Associate Professor of Mathematics at Howard University, Washington D.C., United States of America, 1978.

The period between 1977 and 1980 was when the Department of Mathematics of the University of Jos was in dire need of a Pure Mathematician who specialised in Analysis. During that period, there was also stronger internationality in the University System in Nigeria, and this recognised international scholar and Mathematical Analyst, somebody skilled in the investigation of the relations of variables or indeterminate quantities by means of symbols, including those of algebra and of differential and integral calculus was spotted far away in America and was brought to Jos in 1980 as an Associate Professor of Mathematics. He became a full Professor of Mathematics in Jos in 1987.

Since then, L. S. O. as he is called by those of us close to him, has remained a very essential commodity to institutions within and outside Africa because of his erudition. For example, Professor Liverpool is Reviewer, Mathematical Reviews, USA; Journal Referee for Africa Mathematika, the Nigerian Mathematical Society and Abacus; Chairman, University of Jos Computer Committee; Chairman, University of Jos Management Information Systems Committee; Member, University of Jos Central Linkages Committee and Member, Central Strategic Planning Committee, University of Jos. Also, he has served as external examiner for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Programmes in several Universities, including Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; Federal University of Technology, Yola and Bauchi; University of Ibadan; Nigerian Defense Academy, Kaduna; University of Sierra Leone; and Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India. He was Head of the Department of Mathematics, University of Jos from 1982 to 1988; Dean, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Jos in 1988; Director of Academic Planning, University of Jos 1991 - 1994; and Consultant in Higher Education Management to the National Universities Commission, Nigeria, and the Association of African Universities (AAU).

But Professor L.S.O. Liverpool is not only administrative in his services in the University system. He is a well published Professor contributing well over 50 papers in reputable journals that are based in Sierra Leone, Nigeria, United Kingdom, India, Canada, Finland, Germany and United States of America. He is publishing and researching indefatigably. Currently, he is working on normal families, value distribution theory and factorization of meromorphic functions, iteration theory and complex analytical dynamics; as well as contrasts and analogues in analysis.

A citation on Professor Lennox Samuel Onipede Liverpool will be incomplete if I fail to inform you that he is married to Mrs. Rhoda Liverpool, Vice-Principal of Saint Murumba College, Jos, and they have three children. One of the children, Tanimola Liverpool, is a Mathematical Physicist and a 1994 Ph.D. graduate of the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. The other children are Yema Liverpool an Electrical Engineering and Electronics Undergraduate at the University of Ibadan, and Saweda Liverpool an Economics Undergraduate at the University of Jos.

"I love to hear thine earnest voice wherever thou art hid…. Thou say'st an undisputed thing with such a solemn way".

These are the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809 - 1894), an American Poet and Novelist.

Mr. Vice-Chancellor, allow me to call on you to invite Professor Lennox Samuel Onipede Liverpool to deliver the Fifth Inaugural Lecture of the University of Jos.

Thank you.

Professor Jerry A. Ajayi,

B.Sc. (Guilford); M.Sc; Ph.D. (Wisconsin); Dipl. Agric.

Professor of Zoology, University of Jos, Jos.

17^th September, 1997