Professor Esther Titilayo Akinlabi is a Full Professor of Mechanical Engineering. She is currently serving as the Deputy Faculty Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Knowledge Exchange), at the Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK.

She was the Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering Science, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Johannesburg (UJ), South Africa. [1] She was also the Vice Dean for Teaching and Learning at the institution. She is a member of the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) and a member of the African Academy of Sciences.

Esther Titilayo Akinlabi was born in Kabba, Kogi State, Nigeria. She graduated from St Barnabas Secondary School, Kabba and obtained her first degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Federal University of Technology, Akure in 1997. She obtained her M. Sc mechanical engineering from the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria in 2003 and she moved to Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa for her PhD in 2010.