I do not know how Dele Momodu arrived at the name “Pendulum” for his column in the THISDAY newspaper. You can use a Pendulum to explain the behaviour of a free electron laser as developed at Stanford university where Dele Momodu”s Brother from the same mother, Dele Ajayi was the first Black Student of the Physicist William Shockley, Nobel Prize winner who doubted the ability of his then student Dele Ajayi now a Professor at the Physics and Engineering, Physics Department, Obafemi Awolowo University.
Shockley has been described as a racist but whether you like it or not if you are part of the modern world you cannot do without the Transistor as developed by Shockley. Shockley efforts gave rise to the Silicon valley, California, the worlds centre of innovation, as well as being the worlds largest and most successful industrial estate. The Scientist at Ife actually had their own dreams of creating a Silicon Valley in Ile Ife but the efforts were stunted.
Professor Abiola Irele, famed literary scholar, famously said the Black man would not have arrived until he won the Nobel Prize for Science. I think it should be the Physics Prize. Physics made America what it is.
According to the STANFORD DAILY, February 14 1972, Professor Ajayi under Shockley had solved a problem with a method not taught him by Shockley. Shockley was upset.
Dele Momodu was born May 16 1960 the day that saw the invention of the Laser by the Physicist Theodore Harold Maiman in Malibu who also studied at Stanford. On July 7 Maiman gave a press conference in Manhattan on his invention of the Laser and July 7 a child was was born to Dele Momodu, Publisher of the Ovation Magazine a celebrity journal. LASER stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. It is crucial to Modern Telecommunications as provided for instance by Dele Momodu’s friends and heroes like Mike Adenuga, Hakeem Bello Osagie and long before, Basorun MKO Abiola.
Still on Stanford, the first Business meeting of Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, Engineering Graduates from Stanford was om August 23 1937, the next day August 24, 1937, Basorun Abiola was Born. The three men Packard, Hewlett and Abiola went on to become billionaires. Dele Momodu’s preocccupation is with the lifestyles of the rich who may be found in Malibu and Manhattan.
Dele Momodu’s first son Pekan studied at the imperial college London, Imperial is among the best universities in the world Imperial’s faculty and alumni include 15 Nobel laureates, 2 Fields Medalists, 70 Fellows of the Royal Society, 82 Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering and 78 Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences. So you can say Dele Momodu knows what a world class university looks like.
What puzzles me is is the kind of conversation Dele Momodu has with his brother from the same mother, Professor Dele Ajayi of the Physics and engineering Physics Department, Obafemi Awolowo university, poorly funded like all departments in Nigerian tertiary institutions.
Dele Momodu is a friend to all the rich men and power brokers that matter in Africa, if not the Black world. Maybe he could help with angel investing or venture capital as in the Silicon Valley. And then with the resulting breakthroughs you could say “I am black and proud”
