From abject poverty in Nigeria to a university lecturer in the UK

David Etor, 43, grew up in a compound in Nigeria with several families sharing facilities, where his family's poverty was noted even by their poor neighbours. He shared that his mother used to boil water and pretend to cook in order to protect the family's dignity in front of neighbours.

A turning point came during his national service in Nigeria when he designed a solar-powered oven to prevent food poisoning caused by traditional open-field drying methods. This invention earned him a state government award and a job.

Etor subsequently received a scholarship to study electrical power at Newcastle University and earned a PhD at Durham University before securing his current position as a lecturer in the School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bristol. Sir Steve Webb, a former MP and Pensions Minister who knows Etor through church, described his achievements as remarkable.

Etor noted that he was told as a child that nothing good would come out of him and that he had to pinch himself on his way to the interview. His life story and memoir detail this journey from his early struggles.