The Mathematician died aged 85 on November 2, 2017, and will be buried on February 23 2018.

The Information Minister, Mustapha Hamid, said President Nana Akufo-Addo recognizes the efforts of Professor Allotey in the development of Mathematics and Science in Ghana.

“We all know the contribution of Professor Allotey in Ghana and what he has done for Ghana. To this effect, the President wants to give him all the recognition he needs, a befitting burial.”

Professor Allotey was President of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Ghana, President of the Society of African Physicists and Mathematicians, and a founding fellow and former Vice President of the African Academy of Sciences.

He was also Vice President at Large of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, and former President of Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Mustapha Hamid described him as a genius who worked hard to put Ghana’s name on the world map.

“Professor Allotey is known worldwide, and when his name is mentioned Ghana comes to mind. He has done well for Ghana and he deserves all the respect,” the information Minister said

More about Prof Allotey

The late Prof. Allotey was a pioneer of the 1952 group of the Ghana National College where he received his secondary education. He subsequently pursued further studies at the University Tutorial College, London Borough Polytechnic and the London Imperial College of Science and Technology where he obtained the coveted Diploma of Imperial College (London) in 1960. It was here that he met his future mentor, Professor Abdus Salam, founder of ICTP, who taught him more salient aspects of mathematics and science.

He returned to Ghana to teach at the Department of Mathematics at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). In 1962, he began his PhD studies in mathematical physics at Princeton University, during which time he met and worked with many eminent scientists of the time – Robert Dicke, Val Fitch, Robert Oppenheimer, Paul A.M. Dirac and C.N. Yang. He obtained his masters’ and PhD from Princeton in 1966 and returned in the same year to take up a position as a lecturer at the Department of Mathematics at KNUST. In 1974, he became the first full professor of Mathematics at KNUST and he soon rose to be the head of the department and later the Dean of the Faculty of Science.

He was also the founding director of the KNUST Computer Centre before he assumed his position as the pro-vice-chancellor of the university.

He held many other prestigious positions, including being the President of the Ghana Institute of Physics and the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was the founding president of the African Physical Society.

Ghana awarded him the Millennium Excellence Award in 2005, and dedicated a postage stamp to him. In 2009 he was awarded the Order of the Volta and posthumously awarded the Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah African Genius Award in 2017.

His dream project of establishing a Mathematical Institute to train young Africans at the highest level in mathematics and its application in fields of endeavour materialised with the establishment of the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences in Ghana in 2012.

Besides being a member of, and honorary fellow in many international scientific organisations such as the African Academy of Sciences, International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Institute of Physics and Nigerian Mathematical Society among others, he also held numerous leadership positions at national and international levels. He was a consultant for many international institutions such as the UN, UNESCO, IAEA, IBI and UNIDO. In 2004, he became the only African among the 100 most eminent physicists and mathematicians in the world to be cited in a book titled, One hundred reasons to be a scientist.

In 2009, the Professor Francis Allotey Graduate School (AGS) was established at the Accra Institute of Technology. The institute provides tertiary degrees, ranging from Master’s in Business Administration and Software Engineering to PhD programmes in Information Technology and Philosophy. He was instrumental in getting Ghana to join the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), making it one of the first few African countries to join the Union. He worked closely with IUPAP and ICTP in encouraging physics education in developing countries and organising workshops and conferences in creating awareness in the region.

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By: Sammi Wiafe/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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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.

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Source: GNA

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