Prof Ewurama Addy passes on
Professor Marian Ewurama Addy, the first woman professor of Science at the University of Ghana is reported dead.
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A family source told Accra based radio station, Citi FM that the professor of Biochemistry died Tuesday morning after a short illness.
As a resource person for science education programmes in Ghana, Prof Addy became very popular as the host of the Science and Maths quiz television programme - Brilliant Science and Maths Quiz.
She contributed immensely to science education by making the subject interesting to Ghanaians of all ages with her role as the Quiz Mistress of the national weekly science and maths quiz programme, .
It is believed that her quiz mistress role inspired many female students to study science.
She was 72 years old.
Biography
Prof. Marian Ewurama Addy was a Professor of Biochemistry. In January 2008 she was appointed President of the Anglican University College of Technology, a newly launched private initiative for higher technical education in Ghana.
She is currently Chair of the Policy Committee on Developing Countries (PCDC), a Committee of the International Council for Science, (ICSU), Chair of Ghana’s National Board for Professional and Technicians Examinations (NABPTEX), member of WHO Regional Expert Committee on Traditional Medicine, advisor to the International Foundation for Science, Stockholm, Sweden and Founder and First Executive Secretary of Western Africa Network of Natural Products Research Scientists (WANNPRES), established February 2002.
In the seventies, she took leave from the University of Ghana to become the Director of Programmes for the Science Education Programme for Africa (SEPA), a pan African programme for pre-tertiary science education, which was based in Accra Ghana.
Her experiences in academia were mainly in teaching biochemistry, both basic and applied, to undergraduate, post-graduate, dental and medical students at the University of Ghana, Legon and at Howard University College of Medicine in Washington DC.
Her main area of research was the science of herbal preparations used by Traditional Medical Practitioners, especially their safety, efficacy and how they work.
She was a member of the Kwami Committee, a Technical Committee on Polytechnic Education set up by the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE), to study and make recommendations that was to guide the NCTE to formulate policy and advise government on polytechnic education.
She was also a member of a four-man UNDP Consultancy Team in Ghana set up in 1994 to formulate a National Action Program for Science and Technology Development.
Professor Addy was educated at the University of Ghana, where she studied towards a degree in Botany, and at the Pennsylvania State University, where she obtained Masters and Doctorate degrees in biochemistry.
As head of unit or department in various institutions, Professor Addy was responsible for initiating projects, running workshops and sourcing for funds for these activities as well as for younger scientists in training.
Professor Addy’s interest and extension activities were in bridging the gap between scientific and indigenous knowledge and in the popularisation of science.
She was often called upon to be a Resource Person and/or Role Model for programmes in female science education.
She was the first Quiz Mistress of the popular weekly televised National Science and Mathematics Quiz programme, primarily aimed at improving the learning of science and mathematics for secondary school students.
She hosted the programme for seven years and was responsible for its popularity.
Professor Addy received many awards including: The Millennium Excellence Award for Educational Development at the turn of the millennium; UNESCO Kalinga Prize for the popularization of science in 1999; The Africa-America Institute’s Distinguished Alumna for Excellence in 1998 and Marketing Woman of the Year, in 1995, for marketing Science.
She was made a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts & Sciences in 1999.