All you need to know about KNUST’s VICE CHANCELOR, Prof. Rita Akosua Dickson.

She graduated from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology with a bachelor's degree in pharmacy in 1994 and acquired an MPharm at the same university in pharmacognosy in 1999. She received her PhD in pharmacology from King’s College, London in 2007.

Prof. Dickson began her career as a lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in the year 2000. After leaving to pursue further studies in the UK, she returned to Ghana in 2007 and continued lecturing at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. In 2009 she was promoted to a senior lecturer and further to an associate professor in 2014. In September 2018, she was appointed the pro vice chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, making her the first female to occupy that position. Prior to her appointment as pro vice chancellor, she was the dean of the faculty of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences.

Dickson currently serves as a board member of the Pharmacy Council and Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana. On June 25, 2020 Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology announced her appointment as the first female Vice Chancellor of the University effective 1st August, 2020. She is to serve a four-year term.

Her work as a phytochemist covers the areas of bioactive natural products in the management of communicable and non-communicable diseases.

Dickson's research has been mainly about products derived from Ghanaian plants, with special emphasis on those with anti-infective, wound-healing, anti-inflammatory, anti-pyretic and antidiabetic properties, 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

· Protection effect of the anthraquinones, cassiatorin and aurantio-obtusin from seeds of Senna tora against cowpea weevil attack

She is married to Nana Dickson with four children. She is a Christian and fellowships with Grace Baptist Church, Amakom in Kumasi.

She was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship to pursue a PhD at King’s College, University of London, UK in 2003.

Credit: Wikipedia