EP 10 Can you be both an academic and an entrepreneur ? A conversation with Babajide Macaulay Milton Saka's Is That So

On this episode Saka speaks to Babajide Macaulay Mitlon the founder of Illumania, a platform to help graduate students get scholarships. We challenge assumptions such as; does the academic environment foster entrepreneurship and innovation? Are there advantages to being a student entrepreneur? Is most innovation born out of academic research?


Babajide is a purpose-driven environmental scientist and a self-motivated young man with over 8 years of teaching and research experience. His penchant for research and excellence is what stimulates him in the academic world. He has led projects in environmental mitigation research areas such as groundwater arsenic contamination studies, bioremediation of crude oil spills, and medical waste management.

He is also a youth leader and entrepreneur. He mentors hundreds of Nigerian proteges on capacity development, particularly by providing professional guidance for international postgraduate scholarships. To ensure that these talented individuals get the professional support they need, he founded iLLUMANIA in 2018, an online academic, business and environmental consulting outfit (www.illumania.org).

Currently, he lectures in the Environmental Biology and Public Health unit of the Department of Biology at the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Ondo State, Nigeria