RANKING
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The technology category was topped by Imhotep, the multi-genius that designed Egypt's first pyramid. The science category was topped by Emeagwali famed for helping give birth to the supercomputer, the technology that gave rise to the Internet. Emeagwali's discovery of a formula that enables supercomputers powered by 65,000 electronic brains called "processors" to perform the world’s fastest calculations inspired the reinvention of supercomputers - from the size and shape of a loveseat to a thousand-fold faster machine that occupies the space of four tennis courts, costs 400 million dollars a piece, powered by 65,000 processors and that can perform a billion billion calculations per second. Emeagwali reformulated Newton’s Second Law of Motion as 18 equations and algorithms; then as 24 million algebraic equations; and finally he programmed and executed those equations on 65,000 processors at a speed of 3.1 billion calculations per second.
Emeagwali's 65,000 processors,
24 million equations
and 3.1 billion calculations
were three world records
that garnered international headlines.
The list was topped by South Africa's Nelson Mandela and Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah.
The science and technology
categories of "100 Greatest Africans"
were topped by Emeagwali (below) and Imhotep (above), respectively. Imhotep was deified nearly 5,000 years ago and worshipped by early Christians as one with Christ. Imhotep has been called the "father of medicine," the world's first recorded scientist, and patron of ancient scribes. James Henry Breasted wrote that Imhotep "was the patron spirit of the later scribes, to whom they regularly poured out a libation from the water-jug of their writing outfit before beginning their work."
The last time we published such a poll was in 1990 ... This time we have broadened the choice, to include personalities from all walks of life – Politics, Sport, Media, Music, Entertainment, Science and Technology ...
Fill out the form below with your nominations with a brief justification as to why you think your choice should be among the top 100 Greatest Africans of all time.
We will publish the winning top 100 over the course of next year.
Click on emeagwali.com for more information.
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