File Photo: Professor Marial Awou

The Vice Chancellor of the Upper Nile University, Marial Awou Yul died in India Thursday evening.

This is according to the official page of the Upper Nile University.

Prof. Awou was born on January 15, 1958.

The family of the late is yet to announce the cause of the death.

Prof. Marial was also the former deputy minister of Finance and Planning and the dean of the School of Social and Economic Studies at the University of Juba.

In 1984, late Marial graduated from the University of Gezira in Sudan and obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics.

In 1992, he was awarded a Master of Arts degree from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee in the U.S.

Upon returning to Sudan, he resumed teaching as a lecturer in the College of Economics, University of Gerzira in Sudan.

In 1997, he received a government-funded scholarship to undertake a course of study leading to the Ph.D. degree in economics at the University of Putra Malaysia.

In 2002, the late Professor Awou was appointed an assistant professor in economics, before serving as a contract lecturer of economics at the University of Putra Malaysia for six years.

In 2009, he joined the World Bank as a senior consultant in monetary and exchange rate policies in the Central Bank of Sudan.

Prior to South Sudan’s independence in July 2011, the late was appointed as a state Minister of Finance in Sudan.

Following the secession, he served as deputy minister of Finance and Economic Planning in the first post-independence government of South Sudan.

He was in charge of budget execution and revenue policies, and oversight of international financial institutions.