Professor Margaret Gyapong is a medical anthropologist by training and former Director of the Institute of Health Research (IHR) and Coordinator of the Centre for Health Policy and Implementation Research (CHPIR) at the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS), Ghana. Under her leadership, the centre was designated as a TDR Regional Training Centre for Implementation Research in 2018. Prior to joining the university in 2017, she spent almost 25 years as a researcher in the Ghana Health Service and was foundation Director of the Dodowa Health Research Centre from 2005 to 2016, transforming it from a small research station to an internationally acclaimed research centre. Her interests are in socio-cultural aspects of tropical diseases, implementation research, health systems and maternal and child health.
Emerita Prof. Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu holds a BSc. Zoology Degree from the University of Ghana, a PhD from Edinburgh University and is a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is a biodiversity and environmental specialist, who has received several meritorious awards in recognition of her contribution to wildlife research, training, and capacity development in Africa. As an academic, she combines senior level university administrative experience (having risen to the level of Pro-Vice Chancellor – Research, Innovation & Development) with teaching, extension service and research, as well as capacity development for young faculty. Her passion for mentoring and supporting early career faculty has resulted in raising grant funds to support PhD/Mphil candidates of the University of Ghana and other West African universities. Her research has focused on wetland and waterbirds, as well as general wildlife ecology.
Emerita Prof. Takyiwaa Manuh is Ghanaian academic and author. She is an Emerita Professor of the University of Ghana, and until her retirement in May 2017, she served as the Director of the Social Development Policy Division, of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She was also the Director of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana from 2002 to 2009. She is a fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. She holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in Law from the University of Ghana, Legon, and the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and a Ph.D in Anthropology from Indiana University, Bloomington. Her research interests are in African development; women’s rights and empowerment; contemporary African migrations, and African higher-education systems.
Professor David Dodoo-Arhin is a Professor of Materials Science & Engineering. He holds a PhD in Materials Engineering from the University of Trento, Italy and an MSc in Development Finance from the University of Ghana Business School. Prof. Dodoo-Arhin joined the University of Ghana as a lecturer in 2011, became a Senior Lecturer in 2014, an Associate Professor in 2018, and a full Professor in 2021. His research interests include hybrid and nanostructured materials for packaging, energy, and environmental applications; process and quality control systems; conversion of plastic waste to energy products (waste valorization); industry-academia partnerships; science, technology, and innovation ecosystems; mentorship; and STEM education for females.
Professor Sunday Adebisi is the Director, Entrepreneurship and Skills Development Centre, University of Lagos, Nigeria, and Director, African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) Centre of Excellence for Unemployment and Skills Development. He holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration and his activities have made UNILAG the Hub-Leader in Nigeria and Africa for research in Youth Unemployment and Sustainable Entrepreneurship. His research has focused on entrepreneurship, small business development, and strategic management, which are the areas critical to Nigeria’s economic growth. His work has been instrumental in shaping policies and programs aimed at empowering entrepreneurs and small business owners in Nigeria. Professor Adebisi is actively involved in consultancy, mentorship, and collaborations with industry and policy partners to strengthen entrepreneurship education and sustainable enterprise creation.
Professor Frans SwanepoeI is the Future Africa Research Chair in Sustainable Food Systems at the University of Pretoria (UP) and Interim Director of the ARUA Center of Excellence in Sustainable Food Systems (ARUA-SFS). He is Professor for Agricultural Transformation in Africa (ATA) at the Centre for Advancement of Scholarship (CAS) at University of Pretoria. With a PhD in Animal Breeding and Genetics, his early research career spanned more than a decade during which he worked in pioneering areas of beef production science, for which he obtained international recognition confirmed by his NRF rating. His research interest advanced to smallholder agricultural production systems, agricultural education and training (AET) and agricultural research and innovation leadership in Africa.
Fred Bukachi is Senior Consultant Cardiologist and Professor in Medical Physiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Nairobi (UoN). He is also the Centre Director of the ARUA Centre of Excellence for Non-Communicable Diseases (ACENCD) and Academic Co-Lead of Africa-Europe Cluster of Research Excellence (CoRE) in NCDs and Multimorbidity. He trained in Internal Medicine at the UoN (1995) and later in Cardiology at the Imperial College, London (1999), and Umea University in Sweden. He holds a PhD in Cardiology (2004). Since 2015 he has participated and chaired Guideline writing Committees in Kenya and the region – developing practice guidelines for the treatment of Hypertension, Heart Failure and Diabetes. Professor Bukachi has published extensively including a recent (2025) book Chapter: AI for Telemedicine in Africa and Beyond (Book Title: Telemedicine – Models of Care).
He also serves as a board member and advisor to many regional and international organizations working in the area of NCDs in Africa. He is the immediate former Chair of Medical Physiology at the University of Nairobi and a pioneer of Digital Health in the East-African Region. He is a Fellow of (1) the European Society of Cardiology (FESC), (2) the American College of Cardiology (FACC) and a Founding Fellow of East, Central and Southern Africa College of Physicians (ECSACOP).
Current Editorial appointments: (1) Regional Editor of the Cardiovascular Journal of Africa (official Journal of Pan African Society of Cardiology). (2) Reviewer for major biomedical Journals in Cardiovascular medicine and top grant making organizations.
Current Research areas: Hypertension, Heart failure and Cardiometabolic disease and models of care in NCDs.
Current grants: (1) Co-Principal Investigator: NIH-R1 Joint Grant with Stellenbosch University, South Africa: HIV-associated NCD Research at Low- and Middle-Income Country Institutions – Project title -Altered mitochondrial function and HIV-associated Cardiometabolic disease in populations from South Africa and Kenya (MITOSAKen).
(2) Principal Investigator: Caring for NCD Caregivers: Developing a National Caregivers Policy in Kenya. Funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada.
Professor Jane Tanner undertakes both research and consulting in hydrology, specializing in the modelling and understanding of surface water and groundwater interactions. This includes improving conceptual process understanding as well as hydrological modelling of interactions. She is an expert in the application of the modified Pitman Model (modified at the IWR by Prof Denis Hughes) which integrates both surface water and groundwater. Professor Tanner’s additional research interests lie in the types of field work that support the modelling of SWGW interactions, as well as comparisons between simpler and more complex models, and their applicability in various settings.
Professor Gordon A. Awandare is the Pro Vice-Chancellor responsible for Academic and Students Affairs. He is the founding Director of West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP), and a Professor at the Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology (BCMB) at the University of Ghana, Legon. He was appointed Lecturer at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Ghana in 2002, promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2011, Associate Professor in 2015 and Professor in 2018. His research interest is in the molecular and cellular aspects of infectious diseases in Africa, with specialization in the biology of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, and the pathogenesis of its infections in African children.
Dr. Folashadé Soulé is a Senior Research Associate at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford where she is the co-principal investigator of the ‘Negotiating Africa’s digital partnerships’ policy research project since 2022. Previous to her current position, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the London School of Economics (LSE) and a Global leader fellow – a joint postdoctoral fellowship between Princeton University and the University of Oxford. She was also a lecturer at Sciences Po Paris where she earned her PhD in International Relations in 2014. Originally from Bénin, she speaks fluently French and English and has published and taught courses in both languages. Her research areas focus on foreign policy analysis, diplomacy studies, negotiation, technology and international relations and more specifically the study of agency in Africa’s international relations, the politics of South-South cooperation, and Africa-China relations.
