Babasola Olugasa is a Professor of Epizootiology (Veterinary Epidemiology) and Public Health in the Department of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan.

He holds a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree (1995), MSc Epizootiology (1999), PhD Epizootiology (2006) all from the University of Ibadan. He began the academic career as a Lecturer Grade II in the Department of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine, University of Ibadan on 23 March 1999. He rose to become Professor in the same department in October, 2018. Professor B. O. Olugasa is Principal Investigator and Founding Director of the Centre for Control and Prevention of Zoonoses (CCPZ), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Ibadan (November 2011 till date). He was elected on 12 May 2025 by the Board of Veterinary Medicine to serve as the 17th Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Ibadan. He assumed the office on 01 August, 2025 for a two-year term.                      

Professor B. O. Olugasa specializes in veterinary epidemiology with focus on surveillance of diseases at the human-animal-environment interface, towards veterinary public health work study, and work systems design to guide human factors supervision in disease control, prevention and stepwise elimination. He has applied Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to map the pattern of spread of high consequence animal diseases, describing their spatial and spatio-temporal patterns. He models the time-trend distribution of priority animal and zoonotic diseases to aid the formulation of logical frameworks for their control and prevention in West Africa. He has co-authored four books and contributed chapters in others. He has published in scientific journals (not less than 100), in books of Proceedings (not less than 16), some Technical Reports and Monographs (not less than 7). He is credited with developing a Zoonoses Information System that tends to connect the Nigerian Center for Disease Control's (NCDC) SORMAS with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security’s National Animal Disease Information System (NADIS) in Nigeria. The Zoonoses Information System is now domiciled at the National Zoonoses Center (Nucleus Laboratory), University of Ibadan to serve the nation.

A recipient of a number of major research and capacity building grants, including the Higher Education Initiative Grant of the John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation (USA), 2011 - 2016 to improve graduate programmes for human-animal disease surveillance in West Africa. The MacArthur grant under his leadership of a team of experts mentored 5 PhD and 30 Masters’ students in Human-Animal Disease Surveillance in West Africa at the University of Ibadan. The success of the programme led to the establishment of the CCPZ that delivered short trainings for 300 career officers in the Ministries of Health and Agriculture in Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Professor B. O. Olugasa is actively engaged in the European Union, “URBANE: One Health approached to support agroecological transformation of peri-urban farming in West Africa” and Co-Director of a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant, 2025 – 2026 on Multi-omics dissection of genetic drivers of immune response and adaptation footprints in bovine trypanosomiasis, an award to Rochester Institute of Technology, New York (Project Director: Dr. Bolaji Thomas).                                  

A recipient of the Professor Tielen Foundation Young Scientist’s overseas travel grant (Boxtel, the Netherlands, 1999); Cochran Fellowship of the USDA, 2003; MASHAV scholarship (State of Israel, 2003), and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation long term overseas travel grant, 2003-2004. He is a product of sound mentoring by a foremost veterinary academic in Nigeria, Gabriel O. Esuruoso (1932 – 2013), Professor of Epizootiology and Veterinary Public Health who was the Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Ibadan, 1977-1979 at the University of Ibadan, a Diplomate of the American Veterinary Epidemiology Society (1979), and later President, Veterinary Council of Nigeria, 1998 - 2001. Subsequently guided by Dr James A. Roth, a Distinguished Professor of Veterinary Immunology at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University, USA. Dr. Roth accepted and hosted Dr Babasola Olugasa as Visiting Scholar at the Institute for International Cooperation in Animal Biologics (IICAB), and the Centre for Food Security and Public Health (CFSPH), 2003 – 2004 both at Iowa State University and recommended him for Non-Degree Graduate studies in Geographic Data Management and Analytical Planning; Analytical Planning and Visualization with GIS. The knowledge was applied to projects on Biological Risk Management at CFSPH.

A member of some professional bodies, including the Nigerian Veterinary Medical Association (NVMA); the International Society for Animal Hygiene (ISAH), International Society for Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics (ISVEE); American Society for Veterinary Epidemiology (now American Society for Veterinary One Health); Association for Veterinary Informatics (AVI); Society for Rabies in West Africa (RIWA); Society for Epizootiology in West Africa (SEWA); and Pan-African Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (PAAVLD). Proudly committed to mentoring undergraduates and postgraduates to become veterinarians, professionals and academics tuned to industrial scale of animal production and health to achieve more effective job creation, job satisfaction and homeland prosperity; Professor Olugasa says, “Ours is a noble profession, and our mission and vision as veterinarians are not to compete with human medicine, but to improve human existence by strengthening animal health and welfare, agricultural industrialization, ensuring food security and advancing national health.” A practical approach to training our students with real animals in our curriculum is critical - not as theory, but as an experience - building experiential learning is the moto of this deanship.

The Deanship of Veterinary Medicine under his leadership seeks to pursue a vision of making veterinary education at the University of Ibadan geared towards homeland prosperity. His mission statements are:

1. To expand the frontiers of veterinary education through provision of more effective and efficient veterinary clinics, farms and laboratories for learning and research;
2. To produce graduates who are day-1 ready for industrial-scale practice and supervision of companion and food animal production, health and quality assurance;
3. To contribute to the transformation of society through teamwork in One Health approaches, services and veterinary nursing;
4. To serve as a dynamic custodian of animal health and welfare, thereby improving human existence through human-animal companionship, ensuring food security through wholesome agriculture where homeland prosperity is ignited.

He is an ordained priest and Venerable Archdeacon in the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion).

Tel.: +2347086250378
Email: b.olugasa@ui.edu.ng