By Amaechi Agbo

As part of its effort to continuously equip the students with hands-on, experiential learning, the management of Enugu State University of Science and Technology, ESUT, has made a donation of acres of land to the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), for the building of Advanced Cosmic Ray Laboratory

Although the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the building was signed in November last year, the donation of land by ESUT signals intent and purpose as the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Aloysius-Michaels Okolie declared the university’s readiness for the commencement of the project.

Addressing the team from Centre for Bass Space Science, UNN, which represented NASRDA over the week when they came on inspection tour of the land, the VC while appreciating the agency for considering ESUT for such a gigantic project, said that when completed, it will not only promote innovation and technological ingenuity, it would also add to the arrays of projects the administration is attracting towards promoting experiential education.

“Let me thank you so much for finding it worthy to have this very important project here in ESUT, we have given our undertaking and assurance that the project is in safe hand and that the management will try our possible best to ensure that we make the best use of the facility. By making the land available, it tells you our readiness for the project to start.

“The assurance is that we shall do the needful in making sure that we actualize our collective goal as it concerns this project. It will be a highly sensitive laboratory that will serve multipurpose characters around disciplines within the university,” the VC said.

On his part, the leader of the team and a Deputy Director at UNN Centre for Base Space Science, Dr Chukwujekwu Ofodum said the team was in ESUT to inspect the land provided and report back to their headquarters in Abuja who will then make decision on when the project will take-off.

“Sometime in November last year we were here during the time we had our annual national conference of the Astronomical Society of Nigeria (ASN). It was an opportunity for us also as an agency, to sign an MoU with the university, to partner with them and see how we can grow the human capital needs of Nigeria through one of the labs we intend to establish here. Having signed the MOU, the essence of coming here is just to access what the university has to offer us in terms the permanent site, the land where the university has for us, where we intend to build the permanent sites for the Advanced Cosmic Ray Laboratory at ESUT,” he said.

Also speaking, the Head, Department of Industrial Physics, ESUT, Dr Iheanyichukwu Chima, who attracted the project to ESUT, explained the importance of the Lab to ESUT and humanity.

“We stand to benefit a lot because we don’t have such lab in Nigeria currently. When I did my PhD programme, I was getting all my data from cosmic ray observatory abroad. Now that I have the opportunity to serve the university, I felt that if we have such observatory in Nigeria, many young postgraduate students will not bother going to outside the country to access data.  Cosmic Rays has enormous benefits for Nigeria at large not only in ESUT.” Dr Chima said.

He appreciated NASRDA for giving ESUT the privilege to house the lab and thanked the VC and his team for always thinking ahead and prioritizing the future development of the students.

The Advanced Cosmic Ray Laboratory will be sited at behind Faculty of Biological Sciences, ESUT Main Campus, Ebeano City, Enugu State.

An Advanced Cosmic Ray Laboratory is a specialized, state-of-the-art research facility designed to detect, simulate, or analyze high-energy particles originating from outside the solar system (galactic cosmic rays) or from the sun.

These laboratories often serve dual purposes: conducting fundamental astrophysics research into the origins of the universe and testing the biological and physical effects of space radiation for space exploration