UI Alumnus Wins $300,000 Dan David Prize for Discovery in African Archaeology

It is a moment of immense pride for Nigeria and the University of Ibadan (UI) as one of its own, Dr. Abidemi Babatunde Babalola, has been named among the nine global winners of the 2025 Dan David Prize, the world’s largest financial award for excellence in historical research.

Dr. Babalola, a research archaeologist at The British Museum in the United Kingdom, was awarded $300,000 in recognition of his groundbreaking work that rewrites African history. His research provides the first definitive evidence that glass bead production was indigenous to sub-Saharan Africa, specifically in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, a discovery that challenges decades of Western academic assumptions that Africa lacked the capacity to produce glass independently.

The foundation announced on Tuesday, as it honoured nine exceptional historians, archaeologists, and cultural researchers whose work sheds new light on the human past. Winners were selected for conducting innovative and field-defining scholarship in their respective areas.

Ariel David, son of the prize’s founder, Dan David, remarked, “By making groundbreaking discoveries or applying new methods to historical research, our winners constantly challenge us to think about the past while rethinking how we shed light on it.”

Dr. Babalola’s contribution stands out in its scope and implication. Over the past two decades, he has conducted extensive archaeological excavations in Ile-Ife, held fellowships at Harvard University, the University of Cambridge, and the Cyprus Institute, and worked in state-of-the-art laboratories to develop scientific methodologies that fuse archaeology with ethnography and historical inquiry.

His work not only situates Ile-Ife as a key center of technological and cultural sophistication in ancient Africa but also places glass beads, long considered imports, at the heart of local Yoruba culture, trade, and social power.

Dr. Babalola began his academic journey at the University of Ibadan, where he earned both B.A. and M.A. degrees in Archaeology, before obtaining his Ph.D. in Anthropological Archaeology from Rice University, Houston, Texas. He is currently the Smuts Research Fellow at the Centre of African Studies and a Fellow at the McDonald Institute of Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge.

Other recipients of the 2025 Dan David Prize include Beth Lew-Williams of Princeton University for her work on Chinese immigration and discrimination in the U.S.; Fred Kudjo Kuwornu, a filmmaker focusing on Black identity in Renaissance Europe; and Dmitri Levitin, a scholar of early modern intellectual history researching a newly discovered notebook of Isaac Newton’s university roommate.

Also among the winners are Mackenzie Cooley (Hamilton College), Bar Kribus (Tel Aviv University), Hannah Marcus (Harvard University), Alina Șerban (Untold Stories), and Caroline Sturdy Colls (University of Huddersfield).

The Dan David Prize, headquartered at Tel Aviv University, was established in 2001 and has since evolved to support early- and mid-career scholars studying the past. Previous laureates include renowned author Margaret Atwood, celebrated cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and U.S. public health expert Dr. Anthony Fauci.