UG opens environmental health research centre
The University of Ghana School of Public Health (UGSPH) has inaugurated a new research facility to contribute to the improvement of environmental and occupational health of people in the country and the continent as a whole.
Dubbed: “The West Africa Centre for Global, Environmental and Occupational Health (GEOHealth)”, it will facilitate the undertaking of cutting-edge research in the area of environmental health with respect to harmful toxins and chemicals in the system.
Advertisement
It will also create a platform for hands-on training for students and junior faculty members, while contributing to the generation of new knowledge in Ghana and Africa.
The centre houses modernised classrooms and laboratories, as well as offices for faculty and staff.
The inauguration of the centre in Accra coincided with the visit of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Toxics and Human Rights, Dr Marcos Orellana.
He was on a special mission to interact with government officials, members of the legislature and judiciary, state institutions, civil society organisations, academia, and individuals on a broad range of areas, including the extractive industry, waste management and the use of agro-chemicals, among others.
Aspiration
At the ceremony, the Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, said the university was committed to becoming a world-class research-intensive university through strategic objectives, including reinvigorating impactful research in the areas of applied sciences and humanities.
That, she said, would result in increased research income, exponential growth of research outputs, improved citations, and vibrant community engagements.
“I am, therefore, particularly excited about the inauguration of the West Africa Centre for GEOHealth, which I am optimistic will impact tremendously as the case has been for the other centres of excellence,” Prof. Amfo emphasised.
Regional Centre
The Dean of the School of Public Health, Prof. Kwasi Torpey, said the school would continue to modernise our classrooms, provide high speed and stable Internet to facilitate learning and research.
That, he said, was an attempt to consolidate its position as a regional centre for public health training, while creating a niche for flexible programmes, namely in-person, online and blended.
“We in the school of public health will, collectively, continue to develop this institution as a foremost centre for learning and public health research in the African region,” Prof. Torpey said.
Breakthrough
The Provost of the College of Health Sciences, Prof. Julius Fobil, described the centre as a major breakthrough for the university and the country at large.
“Now, for the first time, we will be able to conduct biological testing of samples because we have established our own laboratory infrastructure where we can analyse samples in-country rather than sending them to Europe or America for testing,” he explained.
Prof. Fobil, therefore, urged students to look forward with optimism because they could now have training in the country that would mould them into homegrown research scientists with competitive abilities.
