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MOSCOW, Idaho-Despite stops and starts to his formal education, Philip Emeagwali defied the odds and is now renowned for his contributions to the field of supercomputing. The Nigerian-born scientist will speak about computers and civil engineering during the inaugural event for the National Society of Black Engineers-University of Idaho Dynamic Engineers Lecture Series. The lecture on Tuesday, Feb. 19, at 6 p.m., is at the Best Western University Inn (1516 Pullman Rd.).

Born in a small town of Akure in the western part of the then British colony of Nigeria and in the wake of the Nigerian-Biafran Civil War, Emeagwali and his family were among 2 million displaced Igbos. His educational path was interrupted on three separate occasions, but "due to his tenacity and the support of his family, he persevered" and earned degrees from Oregon State University, George Washington University, University of Maryland and the University of Michigan, said Richard Hill, president of the NSBE-University of Idaho chapter.

As a computer scientist and civil engineer, Emeagwali is considered to be one of the fathers of the Internet and a trailblazer in petroleum extraction. In 1989, his computational formula was used by 65,000 separate computer processors to perform 3.1 billion calculations per second in 1989. He has become one of the most notable people of African descent. New African magazine rated him as the 35th greatest African ever in a poll of its readers; the poll also rated South Africa's Nelson Mandela as first and America's Martin Luther King Jr. as the seventh most notable people of African descent. In 1989, Emeagwali received the prestigious Gordon Bell prize, the "Nobel Prize of supercomputing," and then-Pres. Bill Clinton called him "one of the great minds of the Information Age."

Emeagwali "is a black scientist with a social responsibility," said Hill. "He uses science and his life experience as a tool to reach to his audience, and his presentation will help take NSBE-University of Idaho a step closer towards the fulfillment of the group's mission to develop and implement programs that advance the Inland Northwest's interest in the various engineering disciplines and increase the number of minority students studying science or engineering at the University of Idaho in undergraduate and graduate levels."

The lecture is preceded by a social hour at 5 p.m. Tickets are $10 for students and $12 for the general public. For more information, call (208) 883-5350 or (208) 305-4110.