Ilemona Sunday OMEJE

A LOOK AT ILEMONA'S HISTORY

Ilemona Sunday earned his Bachelor's degree in Physics from Kogi State University, Nigeria in 2015. Afterwards, he worked as a high school Physics teacher in Nigeria for three years. In 2018, he received the Manutech-SLEIGHT attractiveness scholarship, which enabled him to pursue a Master's degree in Photonics Engineering at Jean Monnet University (UJM) in Saint-Etienne. During his first year at UJM in 2019, Ilemona completed two internships. The first was focused on modeling the wetting properties of femtosecond laser-structured alloys at the Hubert Curien Laboratory. He was awarded the Université de Lyon STARMAJ scholarship for his second research internship in Japan. He also received the the Université de Lyon STARMAC scholarship for his final Master's research internship in Canada in 2020. Currently, he is pursuing a PhD degree at the Hubert Curien Laboratory and working on the EMIL project.

ILEMONA'S MOTIVATION FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

My first-year Master's internship at the Hubert Curien Laboratory gave me the opportunity to work on modeling of the surface functionalization of femtosecond textured materials, which I found very enjoyable. This experience inspired my current PhD thesis in the EMIL project, which is focused on numerical studies of the wettability of surface reliefs created by femtosecond lasers. The EMIL project is fascinating due to its modern applications in self-cleaning surfaces, antibacterial treatment, and the enhancement of the integration and durability of dental and orthopedic implants. I am thrilled to understand how the wettability of laser-textured surfaces changes over time. One of the challenges in realizing this goal is how to introduce physical-chemical changes at the interface, specifically surface oxidation and molecular adsorption, in order to understand this mechanism.