Estella Atekwana

Estella Atekwana is a geophysicist studying biogeophysics and tectonophysics. She is currently Dean of the College of Earth, Ocean and Environment at the University of Delaware. She is also an adjunct professor at both the University of Waterloo and the Missouri University of Science and Technology. Before joining the University of Delaware in 2017, she was the Department Head of the Boone Pickens School of Geology at Oklahoma State University. Atekwana has also been a faculty member at Missouri University of Science & Technology, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, and Western Michigan University.

Atekwana grew up in Cameroon and obtained her B.S. in Geology from Howard University in 1983 as a first-generation college student. She later completed an M.S. in the same subject, also at Howard University in 1986. In 1991, Atekwana completed a Ph.D. in Geophysics at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. After completing graduate school, she became an assistant professor at Western Michigan University. She taught at Missouri University's School of Science and Technology before Oklahoma State University's Boone Pickens School of Geology.

Atekwana's research focuses investigating the effects of microbial-mediated processes on geological media. She also studies the tectonic processes that occur during incipient rifting of continental crust.

• Eminent Faculty Award, Oklahoma State University (2015)
• Outstanding Educator Award, Society of Exploration Geophysicists (2016)