Professor Allotey inducted as Fellow of Nigerian Mathematical Society

Professor Francis Kofi Ampenyin Allotey, a renowned Ghanaian Mathematician and Scientist has been inducted as Fellow of the Nigerian Mathematical Society (NMS).

The award was in recognition of Prof Allotey’s outstanding contributions towards the advancement of mathematics, science and technology in Africa and across the globe.

Other recipients of the 2017 NMS Fellows Award alongside Prof Allotey, were three eminent Nigerian Mathematicians and Scientists; namely Professors: Jerome Ajayi Adepoju, Alexander O. E. Animalu and Iheanyichukwu Sylvester Iwueze.

Prof Ninuola Akinwande, the President, NMS, presented the award to Prof Allotey at the Introduction to Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) for complex diseases workshop in Accra.

The five-day workshop is being organised by the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Ghana (AIMS-Ghana) in collaboration with the H3AbioNet Node of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR), University of Ghana.

Prof Allotey was educated at the Roman Catholic Elementary School, Saltpond; the Ghana National College, Cape Coast; the Tutorial College, London; Borough Polytechnic (now University of South Bank), London; Imperial College of Science and Technology, London and Princeton University in the United States.

He was appointed lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and rose through the ranks to become the first Ghanaian Full Professor in Mathematics and Head of the Department of Mathematics in 1973.

While at the KNUST, he held a number of positions such as Dean of the Faculty of Science, Founding Director of the Computer Science Centre in Ghana, Pro-Vice Chancellor and member of the KNUST University Council.

Prof Allotey has also held several other local and international appointments such as being appointed by the UN Secretary-General to be among a group of 12 international experts commissioned to advise the UN on Nuclear Weapon.

Receiving the Award, an elated Prof Allotey thanked the NMS President, Executive Council and Members for the honour done him.

“I also thank the delegation of the Nigerian Mathematical Society, who have travelled from Nigeria to bestow this honour on Ghana,” he added.

Prof Allotey, who is also the President, AIMS - Ghana, said the developing countries of today were slowly waking up to the realisation that in the final analysis, creation, mastery, utilisation of modern science and technology was basically what distinguished the developing countries from the advanced countries.

He said the widening gap in economies and influence between the nations of the South and the North was essentially a manifestation of the science and technology gap.

“I wish to press here that we need both pure science and technology adding while science helps to advance the frontiers of knowledge, technology helps to advance the frontiers of economic wealth. Both are needed for our national development,” Prof Allotey stated.

“Mathematics is the foundation and sine qua non for the understanding the nature of modern science and technology,” he added.

He said without mathematical training, Africa would be unable to access the full power of technologies to solve their countries’ numerous problems.

He urged African youth to learn to contribute significantly by researching into extension of knowledge in Mathematical Sciences.

Prof Akinwande congratulated Prof Allotey and the other recipients of the NMS Fellow Awards for being mathematicians and scientists of international standing with distinguished achievements

He wished the Awardees longer life of continuous services to humanity in general and worthy of contributions to the advancement of Mathematical Science.

He said Mathematics was the driving force for meaningful Scientific, Economic, Agricultural and Technological breakthroughs and advancement and so should be given all the support needed for scholarship.

Prof Kwadwo Ansah Koram, the Director, NMIMR, hailed Prof Allotey for bringing honour to mother Ghana.

On the workshop, Prof Koram said it was aimed at introducing an interdisciplinary audience to the important concepts in genetics and population genetics that were relevant to complex disease association studies and data analysis.

Dr Gaston K. Mazandu, IDRC Research Chair, AIMS Ghana and South Africa, said participants at the workshop would also be introduced to the potential of GWAS and to key considerations in designing and performing association studies for mapping disease genes.