Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Xuanning Fu announced on Aug. 2 that Dr. Segun Ogunjemiyo was appointed interim dean of the College of Social Sciences, effective August 2021.

Ogunjemiyo is a professor in the Department of Geography and City and Regional Planning and previously served as chair of the department for five years. He has been a member of the Fresno State community for the past 15 years, and he has developed an outstanding record of teaching, scholarship and service.

Ogunjemiyo studied on three continents, receiving his undergraduate degree from the Federal University of Technology Akure, Nigeria, his master’s degree from University of Ghent in Belgium and his doctoral degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

Ogunjemiyo joined the Fresno State faculty in 2005 as an assistant professor of geography. He was previously a postdoctoral associate in geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

He teaches courses and conducts research in areas that cut across multiple disciplines with special emphasis on climate change, air quality and biosphere-atmosphere interactions, especially as it relates to transport of air pollutants in the boundary layer. Ogunjemiyo is an internationally recognized scholar and was involved in several large-scale interdisciplinary studies on climate change. His current research is devoted to studying air quality and how exposure to heat waves, ozone, particulate matters and other pollutants affect people living in the Central Valley.

Ogunjemiyo has been successful in leading his department to apply for a variety of grants. Since 2006, he has been awarded grants from funding agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the United States Department of Agriculture – National Institute of Food and Agriculture program and the Agricultural Research Institute.

Ogunjemiyo is sensitive to the needs of migrant and immigrant populations. He was the faculty adviser for the African Student Association and since 2010 has been an executive member of the Yoruba Society Association of Central California, a cultural group tasked with educating the Fresno community about the cultures of the Yoruba people.

"I look forward to working with Dr. Segun Ogunjemiyo this coming year. The social sciences are a fundamental part of our curriculum especially when we leverage their importance within our mission of social justice and the new curriculum in ethnic studies. I am confident he will lead the College of Social Sciences with transparency and efficiency in the 2021-22 academic year," Fu said.