The Council of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has appointed Prof Mrs. Rita Akosua Dickson, a professor of Pharmacognosy as the new vice chancellor.
Prof. Akosua Dickson becomes the first female vice chancellor of the university since its establishment in 1951.
The appointment takes effect from August 01, 2020 to July, 31, 2024.
Prior to her recent appointment, Prof. Dickson was the Pro Vice Chancellor of the university, also as the first female to occupy the position after an appointment in September 2018.
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She served as the Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences for three terms from 2009 to 2013 and also acted as Provost of the College of Health Sciences in the absence of the Provost.
She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy in 1994. She pursued graduate studies leading to the award of MPharm. in Pharmacognosy in 1999 and was appointed a lecturer the following year in the Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, KNUST.
Prof. Dickson is a Phytochemist whose work spans the areas of bioactive natural products in the management of communicable and non-communicable diseases and she has been devoting time to natural products research with anti-infective, wound-healing, anti-inflammatory, anti-pyretic and antidiabetic properties among others; based on their ethnopharmacological usage.
Her research has led to the isolation and structure elucidation of several bioactive natural products including cassane furanoditerpenoids, coumarins, alkaloids, glucosides and flavonoids with potentials as leads in drug discovery.
She has attended and presented research papers at several local and international conferences; and has over 50 publications in peer reviewed International Journals to her credit.
She serves as a reviewer for several journals in pharmacognosy, natural products and phytochemistry as well as a reviewer for South Africa’s National Research Foundation and the KNUST Research Fund (KReF). Professor Dickson has been actively involved in the evaluation of papers of academic staff for promotion in both local and international universities and has been an assessor and external examiner for PhD theses locally and internationally.
Prof. Dickson is a member of several local and international organizations including the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana, Commonwealth Pharmacists Association (CPA), Society of Medicinal Plant Research (GA), International Society of Ethnopharmacology (ISEP), Phytochemical Society of Europe (PSE) and American Society of Pharmacognosists.
She is a board member of the Pharmacy Council and Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana. Prof. Akosua Dickson will take over from the incumbent VC, Prof. Kwasi Obiri-Danso whose tenure expires in July 2020.
SOURCE: ATLFM NEWS
