February
12, 2002
Lincoln
University Hosts Visit From Namibian Scholar
Dr. Tjama Tjivikua
graduated from Lincoln in 1983
Dr. Tjama Tjivikua, founder and rector of the Polytechnic of
Namibia, a school of higher education in southern Africa, visited
Lincoln University's main campus on Tuesday, Feb. 12. He met
with University officials to mark the recent signing of an exchange
agreement between Lincoln and the Polytechnic.
The Polytechnic is an accredited, baccalaureate degree-granting,
four-year institution in Windhoek, Namibia in southern Africa.
Dr. Tjivikua established it in January 1995.
The agreement, which took effect in the Fall 2002 semester,
allows for an indeterminate number of Lincoln students to study
one year in Namibia and for an equal number of Polytechnic students
to study one year at Lincoln in southern Chester County, Pa.
The exchange is open only to students who are majoring in information
technology, business, economics, communications or pre-engineering.
Dr. Tjivikua is well acquainted with Lincoln University. He
graduated cum laude from Lincoln in 1983 with a bachelor's degree
in chemistry. His other undergraduate honors include: the American
Chemical Award, the Jessie B. Plummer Memorial Medal, the Bradley
Gold Medal, the James Birnie Memorial Award, and the Wilbert
A. Tatum - Saligrama C. Subbarao Award. He also twice earned
Lincoln's Special Service Award as well as citations in German.
He earned his master's of science degree in organic chemistry
from the University of Lowell, Mass., where he was a research
fellow. He was a teacher and research fellow at the University
of Pittsburgh where he earned his doctorate in organic chemistry.
After receiving his doctorate, he spent a year at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology as a visiting scientist. In 1990, he
returned to his alma mater as an assistant professor of chemistry
as well as university marshal. He left Lincoln in 1995 to establish
the Polytechnic of Namibia in Windhoek, Namibia.
Founded in 1854, Lincoln University is a premier, Historically
Black University that combines the best elements of a liberal
arts and sciences-based undergraduate core curriculum and selected
graduate programs to meet the needs of students living in a
highly technological and global society.
Lincoln University is ranked first in Pennsylvania and second
in the nation in graduating African Americans with baccalaureate
degrees in the physical sciences. Lincoln is also the only university
in the Commonwealth and one of but 20 universities nationwide
where 40 percent or more of its physics graduates are women.
For further information, contact Terri L. Heard in the Office
of Marketing and Communications at (484) 365-8000, ext. 3451
or by e-mail at theard@lu.lincoln.edu.
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