Ilesanmi Adesida (born 1949 in Ifon, Ondo State, Nigeria) is a Yoruba-American scientist. Since September 2016, he has served as the provost of Nazarbayev University in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. Adesida is also the Donald Biggar Willett Emeritus Professor of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he retired in 2016. The University of Illinois Board of Trustees appointed Adesida as the new vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost of the Urbana campus in May 2012, a post he held from August 15, 2012 until August 31, 2015. Adesida also served as Dean of the College of Engineering, Director of the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, Director of the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, and Coordinated Science Laboratory.
Adesida was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2006 for contributions to nanometer-scale processing of semiconductor structures and applications in high-performance electronic and optoelectronic devices. From 2007 to 2011, Adesida also served on the board of Fluor Corporation. His academic study area is nanotechnology, with a focus on high-speed devices utilized in communications. Nanofabrication science and technology, high-speed optoelectronic devices, and wide-bandgap materials and devices are also among his research interests. Adesida received his bachelor's, master's, and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1974, 1975, and 1979, respectively.
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