Ghana’s top Sci-Tech university appoints first-ever female Vice-Chancellor

Professor Rita Akosua Dickson has just made history as the first female Vice-Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana. According to a statement by the University, the appointment was made by the Council at its 258th Special Meeting on Thursday.

Professor Dickson, a professor of Pharmacy, is the current Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University and the first female to have held that position. She will be taking over from Professor Kwasi Obiri Danso.

She will commence her four-year term with effect from August 1, 2020, through July 31, 2024.

Graduating from KNUST with a Bachelor of Pharmacy from KNUST in 1994 and obtaining a Master of Pharmacy degree from the same university in 1999, Professor Dickson has worked in the areas of bioactive natural products in the management of communicable and non-communicable diseases.

Her career as a lecturer at KNUST began in 2000. Three years into her career, Prof. Dickson was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship to pursue a PhD at Kings’ College London, University of London, UK.

In 2009, a few years after her return to teaching at the university, she became a senior lecturer and by 2014, she had become an associate professor. Prior to her appointment as pro-vice-chancellor in 2018, Prof. Dickson served as the Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Prof Dickson was also reportedly the Chairperson of the Education sub-committee of the Pharmacy Council and served as an examiner in the Ghana Pharmacy Council Professional Qualifying Examination for pharmacy graduates.

She is a fellow of the Ghana College of Pharmacists and a board member of the Pharmacy Council and Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana. She has served on several committees locally and internationally in the area of Pharmacy Education and Training.

As a Phytochemist, she’s conducted research on natural products, with anti-infective, wound-healing, anti-inflammatory, anti-pyretic and antidiabetic properties among others; based on their ethnopharmacological usage.

Some of her publications include Antibacterial and resistance –modifying effects of Mezoneuron benthamianum; Anti-inflammatory and Analgesic Effects in Rodent Models of Ethanol Extract of Clausena anisata Roots and their Chemical Constituents.