Dinah Mary James, OBE: Tribute to an Amazon of Pharmacology

Abstract

She came, she saw and not only did she conquer, she left an enduring legacy in Nigeria, the country she lived for twenty years from 1958 when she arrived.  Professor Dinah Mary James, OBE, (fondly called Iya Pharmacology or mother of Pharmacology) spent her entire productive years for research and training in Pharmacology at the Nigeria’s first Medical School, University of Ibadan where she rose to become the first Professor of Pharmacology in 1965.

Professor Dinah Mary James was appointed Senior Lecturer in the Department of Pharmacology in Ibadan in 1958 and was the first Academic staff to be appointed directly in the fledging Department which had been part of Department of Physiology until 1952. She retired from the University in 1978 and returned to the United Kingdom. In 1980, Professor Dinah James was conferred with the prestigious OBE by her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II for services to medicine and research.