Today was meant to be a day of celebration because Nigerian #BlackandSTEM Chiamaka Okoli was set to receive her PhD in physics today. Instead today I am tweeting to ask people to contribute funds to send her home for her funeral. She died Monday night, from a brain aneurysm.

She leaves behind a husband and a toddler, whom she loved enormously. Help relieve financial strain on her family in this terrible time by donating to her homegoing fund which is being managed by the PhD research org that we shared, Perimeter Institute.

You can send funds in Canadian currency using the following information:
Account name: Chiamaka Okoli Trust Fund
Account number: 5244774
Institution name and address: TD Bank, 15 King St S, Waterloo, ON N2J1N9
Institution number: 004
Branch number: 38142
SWIFTCODE: TDOMCATTTOR

I have been heartbroken about Chiamaka’s loss all week. Please help me honor her memory by supporting her family in this time.

The personal loss for so many people is enormous.

Chiamaka would have been one of under 10 Black women to ever earn a PhD in particle or cosmology theory in North America.

The cultural loss is also significant.

#BlackandSTEM

We’d like to raise a minimum of CA$20,000 to cover their expenses, but I hope we can raise more than that.

I was so proud to help Chiamaka prepare her postdoctoral applications. She was just enormously intelligent and wonderfully generous.