Grace Oladunni Taylor

Grace Oladunni Taylor (also known as Grace Oladunni Lucia Olaniyan-Taylor; 1937-2025) was a biochemist, formerly at University of Ibadan, Nigeria. She was the second woman to be inducted into the Nigerian Academy of Science and the first African awarded a L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science.

Early life and education Grace Oladunni Lucia Olaniyan was born in Efon-Alaiye, Ekiti State, Nigeria, to Elizabeth (née Olatoun) and R. A. W. Olaniyan. Between 1952 and 1956, she was a student of the Queen's School in Ede in the Osun State. She enrolled for her tertiary studies in 1957 at the Nigerian College of Arts and Science in Enugu and in 1959 transferred to the University College of Ibadan (now Ibadan University). Olaniyan graduated with honors in 1962 with a degree in chemistry.

Career and research Following completion of her degree, she immediately went to work at the Regional Agricultural Research Station at Moor Plantation in Ibadan.

Her specialty was the analysis of lipids in cardiovascular disease and her comparison of lipid metabolism confirmed that cholesterol levels are not a product of race, but rather diet and exercise levels. She was awarded numerous honors for her research, including the Shell-BP Scholarship in Chemistry, a World Health Organization Fellowship, the Fulbright–Hays Fellowship, a Ciba-Geigy Fellowship, and the Association of African Universities Fellowship. as the second woman to have ever been honored as an inductee. becoming the first African to receive the award. In 2012, she was honored by the Ekiti State Government for her contributions to mentoring and teaching medical students.

Selected works

Taylor, G. O. (1971). Serum triglycerides and fatty acids in kwashiorkor. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 24(10), 1212–1215. Taylor, J. Communities of practice: A way of leading. Teaching and Learning, 40. Cheraskin, E. "If High Blood Cholesterol Is Bad—Is Low Good?." Journal of orthomolecular medicine 1.3 (1986): 176–183. Bock, U. (2000). The Institutionalization of Women's Studies at German Universities at the End of the Century. European Education, 32(4), 14–32.