Elegba S.B. is the Nigerian professor of physics, who in 1987 installed, commissioned and operated the first Neutron Generator in West Africa. Elegba was trained in Ukraine of the former Soviet Union and in the United States from where he acquired his doctorate degree in Theoretical Solid State Physics from the University of Oregon in 1990. By arguing that the absence of a nuclear technique soil fertility map resulted in arbitrary fertilizer application and the ground water pollution arising therefrom, Elegba was able to convince the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, Austria to partner with his Nuclear Science and Technology Centre at the Ahmodu Bello University, Zaira. So, Elegba brought into the country in 1994, the first Nuclear Research Reactor.
In his career which began in 1974, culminating in his appointment as the pioneer Director General of the Nigeria Nuclear Regulatory Authority in 2001, Elegba brought together under one roof, different but very important sectors of the national economy: agriculture, solid mineral development, education, science and technology, and nuclear safety and radiation protection in all applications of nuclear energy and ionizing radiation.
