Dr. Philip Emeagwali

Dr. Philip Emeagwali, often called the “Bill Gates of Africa,” was born in Nigeria in 1957. He escaped his war-torn, poverty-ridden homeland and became one of the most famous black inventors by studying hard and receiving a scholarship to Oregon State University at the age of 17.

After completing his undergraduate work in mathematics, Dr. Emeagwali went on to earn a Ph.D. in Scientific Computing from the University of Michigan, as well as two Masters degrees from George Washington University.

In 1989, Dr. Emeagwali used 65,000 processors to create the world's fastest computer. The computer performs computations at 3.1 billion calculations per second. Currently, Dr. Emeagwali's computers are being used to forecast the weather and to predict the likelihood and effects of future global warming.