Our Team

Gabriel Sunday Ayayia is the Founder and Executive Director of LIFEWS Foundation (Lichipu Foundation for Food, Energy, and Water Sustainability), and the Project Initiator of GEANA — the Green Energy and Agrivoltaics Network Africa. He is a PhD student in Biological and Ecological Engineering at Oregon State University, USA, where his research focuses on agrivoltaic systems, environmental ethics, and the food-energy-water nexus.
Gabriel’s academic and professional journey is deeply interdisciplinary, cutting across agricultural engineering, philosophy, applied ethics, environmental science, and education. He holds three master’s degrees, each awarded with distinction, reflecting both his intellectual breadth and academic excellence. This diverse foundation enables him to approach complex sustainability challenges with both technical precision and ethical sensitivity.
He is the author of the forthcoming book Democratising the Sun: Agrivoltaics and the Future of Energy in Africa, and the originator of Lichipu, a new African philosophy rooted in communal responsibility and co-creation. Lichipu complements Ubuntu by emphasizing “all of us should do it together” — a framework he applied in Oregon to study compassion and community engagement in food pantry operations. Born and raised in the western part of Nigeria, Gabriel brings visionary insight, ethical clarity, and practical strategy to his leadership. Through LIFEWS, he continues to advance agrivoltaic education, institutional partnerships, and policy advocacy to support an inclusive and sustainable African future