The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) is set to launch the Ghana Photonics and Optics Laboratory (GPOL) on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, as part of efforts to strengthen Ghana’s capacity in light-based science and instrumentation.

The laboratory, which will be hosted by the Department of Physics, will be commissioned at the Amonoo-Neizer IDL Conference Centre at 8:00 a.m.

GPOL is being developed by KNUST researchers led by Dr Akyana Britwum, Principal Investigator and Scientific Lead, and Dr Michael Kweku Edem Donkor, Technical Lead and Co-Principal Investigator, with support from international partners.

The laboratory will focus on building, teaching and maintaining photonic instruments for applications in health, safety, environmental monitoring and other areas.

Potential applications include technologies for authenticating medicines without opening their packaging, affordable diagnostic imaging, and sensors capable of detecting heavy metals in soil and water.

According to the organisers, GPOL is intended not only to use imported photonic technologies but also to develop local capacity to design, build and improve such instruments and apply them to challenges relevant to Ghana and Africa.

The initiative comes against challenges including the circulation of substandard and falsified medicines, late detection of conditions such as glaucoma and newborn jaundice, and environmental contamination from heavy metals associated with mining.

Photonics, which involves the use of light to measure, image and sense, can be applied to each of these areas. However, the organisers say many of the relevant instruments are imported, expensive and difficult to repair locally.

The launch of GPOL will coincide with the inaugural NYANSAPƆ Photonics School for Health and Safety, a six-day training programme bringing together 38 emerging scientists from six African countries and photonics researchers from Africa, Europe and North America.

Unlike a conventional scientific conference, the school will provide participants with hands-on training in working laboratories. They will learn the science behind photonic instruments and operate technologies used in medical imaging, tissue and blood-flow measurement, chemical analysis and other health and safety applications.

The organisers said equipment and expertise established through the programme will remain at KNUST to support research, training and regional collaboration beyond the school.

The school takes its name from NYANSAPƆ, the Adinkra “wisdom knot”, which symbolises learning, ingenuity and adaptability and is associated with the proverb that serves as KNUST’s motto.

The programme will feature international experts including Dr Peter de Groot, the 2025 President of SPIE, the international professional society for optics and photonics, who will deliver the launch keynote.

Other distinguished lecturers include Dr Daewook Kim of the University of Arizona and Dr Samuel Achilefu of UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Researchers from ICFO in Barcelona, Vanderbilt University and Aix-Marseille Université will also teach laboratory modules, with additional lectures from Imperial College London and institutions in Côte d’Ivoire, Togo and Ghana.

The inaugural cohort includes students from more than 10 institutions across Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Kenya, Rwanda and Zimbabwe.

The programme will conclude with a community outreach exercise at Hwiremoase, where participants will introduce hundreds of pupils to photonics.

Dr Britwum said the initiative would help position Ghana to undertake advanced optics research locally.

“Photonics is one of the defining technologies of this century, and there is no reason Ghana should be on the sidelines,” she said.

“With GPOL and the NYANSAPƆ school, we are establishing the laboratory, the training and the international partnerships that let us as researchers and our students do world-class optics here at home, on problems that matter to Ghana.”

Dr Donkor said the practical component of the programme would enable students to gain direct experience with photonic technologies.

“What sets this school apart is that students do not simply hear about these techniques. They learn the science behind each instrument, operate it themselves, and take the data it produces through to analysis,” he said.

“Commissioning the GPOL at KNUST means the equipment, the understanding and the skill all remain in Ghana long after the school ends.”

The NYANSAPƆ Photonics School and GPOL launch are supported by SPIE as title sponsor, alongside Optica, Menlo Systems and Thorlabs, as well as the Institute for Quantum Computing through KNUST’s partnership with the Pan-African Initiative for Research at the University of Waterloo, and in partnership with ICFO.

Prof. Francis Kofi Ampong, Head of the Department of Physics at KNUST, said the laboratory and photonics school would contribute to strengthening scientific capacity at the university.

“Photonics is a growing strength for our Department and hosting the NYANSAPƆ school places our students shoulder to shoulder with leading researchers from around the world,” he said.

“The laboratory being commissioned during the week will serve our students and our research and have a lasting impact on Ghana’s scientific community.”