The University of Stanford has attributed Abdon Atangan as one of the Top 2 Scientists in the World. The authorities have termed him one of the country’s best known and applauded scientific workers. He is a Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Institute of Groundwater Studies at the Free State University in Bloemfontein, South Africa. He specializes in applied mathematics.
He was born on October 1, 1985, in Elig-Mfomo, a commune in the Center region of Cameroon. Married to Ernestine Alabaraoye, he did part of his studies in Cameroon at Obala high school and then at the University of Yaoundé 1.
In 2013, he obtained a doctorate in applied mathematics at the Groundwater Studies Institute, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein in South Africa.
At 35, he became the youngest African mathematician to join the Clarivate Web of Science list.
His research interests are methods and applications of partial and ordinary differential equations, fractional differential equations, perturbation methods, asymptotic methods, iterative methods, and groundwater modelling.
Professor Atangana founded fractional calculus with non-local and non-singular kernels popular today in applied mathematics. He is one of the authors of the popular fractional derivative in the sense of Atangana–Baleanu, a derivative widely used in mathematics, named Atangana–Baleanu fractional derivatives.
In 2017, he was the most cited mathematician in the World through his scientific work. In 2019, some studies named Abdon Atangan as one of the World’s most cited mathematicians. He is among the top 1% of scientists on the global list (2019 and 2020) Clarivate Web. He is a fervent defender of research funding in Africa.
In 2020, he was named one of the most quoted mathematicians in the World with interdisciplinary influence. He was the first mathematician to get the TWAS Mohammad A. Hamdan Award awarded by the World Academy of Science. He is a fervent defender of research funding in Africa.
In June 2023, he became the first Unesco-Al Fozan International Award for promoting young scientists in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This biennial award was created by Unesco in 2021 in partnership with the Al-Fozan Foundation of Saudi Arabia.
