text: Kanu was the first member of his family to attend university. He attended University of Sierra Leone, where he studied chemistry in Fourah Bay College. He was involved with track and field as an undergraduate student. Kanu was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship, and moved from Sierra Leone to Manchester for his graduate studies. When he arrived at the University of Manchester Kanu started to work on gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. For his doctoral degree he developed miniaturised systems for environmental monitoring. His doctoral research formed the basis of two patents focussing on membrane sampling, which reduced sampling time by 60%.