Ivan Addae-Mensah | |
---|---|
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana | |
In office 1996–2002 | |
Preceded by | George Benneh |
Succeeded by | Kwadwo Asenso Okyere |
Personal details | |
Born | 10 January 1942 |
Nationality | Ghanaian |
Education | |
Scientific career | |
Fields | |
Institutions | University of Ghana, Legon |
Ivan Addae-Mensah, FGA, CV (born 10 January 1942) is a Ghanaian chemist and university administrator who served as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Legon from 1996 to 2002. [1] [2] He is an Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the same institution. [1] He is a Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the Ghana Chemical Society. [1] [2]
Addae-Mensah is a member of the Nzema ethnic group. He was educated at Achimota School and studied Chemistry at the University of Ghana, Legon, receiving his bachelor's degree with first class honours. [1] [2] [3] He also obtained a Master of Science (M.Sc.) degree in chemistry from the same university. [1] [2] Between 1967 and 1970, he pursued his PhD at Churchill College, Cambridge. [1] [2] [3]
In October 1970, he was appointed a lecturer in Chemistry at the University of Ghana, Legon and rose through the ranks to become a full Professor. [1] [2] [3] A Chartered Chemist (C. Chem.), his area of specialty is medicinal chemistry and pharmacology. [1] [2] [3] He also worked at the Drug Research Unit, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ife in Nigeria and the Faculty of Pharmacy University of Nairobi, Kenya. He was an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellow at the Institute of Pharmacy and Food Chemistry University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany from 1982 to 1984. Ivan Addae-Mensah is a Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He is also a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences and was also the organisation's vice president for the Sciences for four years. He is a Fellow of the Ghana Chemical Society. In 1993, he was appointed the Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Ghana. [1] [2] [3] Between 1996 and 2002, he served as the Vice-Chancellor of the same institution. [1] [2] [3] After his retirement as a university administrator, he returned to the classroom and laboratory to continue teaching and research. [1] [2] [3]
He has served as a knowledge consultant to several domestic and international institutions including the World Health Organization (Headquarters, TDR and Afro Region), UNESCO, UNFPA, the European Union (EU), the Ghana Statistical Service and several other national and international organisations. Since 1988, he has been a member of the WHO Expert Committee on the International Pharmacopoeia and Pharmaceutical Preparations and Drug Quality Assurance of Medicines chairing meetings of the Committee numerous times. [1] [2] [3]
He was a member of the Expert Advisory Committee of the WHO/TDR/EU- funded malaria drug development initiative, and the TDR-ANDI Drug and Diagnostics Development Initiative. [1] [2] [3] He is a member of the WHO-AFRO African Advisory Committee on Health Research and Development (AACHRD), and was involved in various meetings of AACHRD and WHO-AFRO to study, review and make recommendations on the WHO-CEWG report on Health research and development (R&D), Financing and Coordination. [1] [2] [3]
Addae-Mensah served as the General Secretary of the Peoples National Party, PNC and Presidential Advisor to Hilla Limann. [4] From 1980 to 1982, he was the Chairman of the Volta River Authority. [1] [2] [3] He was appointed the Chairman of the National Petroleum Authority, Member of the National Council for Tertiary Education and the Council of the University of Mines and Technology at Tarkwa. [1] [2] [3] Since 2001, Addae-Mensah has been a Member of the Board of the United Nations University Institute of Natural Resources in Africa. [1] [2] [3]
He has been a champion of gender equity in educational opportunities as well as social mobility for the underprivileged. [1] [2] [3]
Ivan Addae-Mensah has received several honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Ghana (Doctor of Science–honoris causa, 2003), New York University (Doctor of Humane Letters, 2002) and Soka University, Japan (Highest Honour, 1998). [1] [2] [3] Under the leadership of John Kufuor, Addae-Mensah was awarded the State Honour of Companion of the Order of the Volta (COV) by the Government of Ghana in 2006 for his contributions to education and public service. [5]
In 2016, the University of Ghana, Legon honoured him by naming a road intersection on its campus after him in recognition to his academic contributions and service to the institution. [6]
He is married with 4 children. He is the father of Kojo Addae-Mensah, the current Group CEO of Databank. [7]
His published works include: [16]
Alkaloids are a class of basic, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Some synthetic compounds of similar structure may also be termed alkaloids. In addition to carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen, alkaloids may also contain oxygen or sulfur. Rarer still, they may contain elements such as phosphorus, chlorine, and bromine.
Phytochemistry is the study of phytochemicals, which are chemicals derived from plants. Phytochemists strive to describe the structures of the large number of secondary metabolites found in plants, the functions of these compounds in human and plant biology, and the biosynthesis of these compounds. Plants synthesize phytochemicals for many reasons, including to protect themselves against insect attacks and plant diseases. The compounds found in plants are of many kinds, but most can be grouped into four major biosynthetic classes: alkaloids, phenylpropanoids, polyketides, and terpenoids.
The University of Ghana is a public university located in Accra, Ghana. It is the oldest public university in Ghana.
Bacopa monnieri is a perennial, creeping herb native to the wetlands of southern and Eastern India, Australia, Europe, Africa, Asia, and North and South America. It is known by the common names water hyssop, waterhyssop, brahmi, thyme-leafed gratiola, herb of grace, and Indian pennywort. Bacopa monnieri is used in Ayurveda. In 2019, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned manufacturers of dietary supplement products containing Bacopa monnieri against making illegal and unproven claims that the herb can treat various diseases.
Thalictrum is a genus of 120-200 species of herbaceous perennial flowering plants in the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae, native mostly to temperate regions. Meadow-rue is a common name for plants in this genus.
The Nzema are an ethnic group numbering about 328,700, of whom 262,000 live in southwestern Ghana and 66,700 live in the southeast of Côte d'Ivoire. In Ghana, the Nzema area is divided into three electoral districts: Nzema East Municipal, also known as Evalue Gwira; Ellembele; and Nzema West, also known as Jomoro. Their language is also known as Nzima or Appolo.
Voacangine is an alkaloid found predominantly in the root bark of the Voacanga africana tree, as well as in other plants such as Tabernanthe iboga, Tabernaemontana africana, Trachelospermum jasminoides, Tabernaemontana divaricata and Ervatamia yunnanensis. It is an iboga alkaloid which commonly serves as a precursor for the semi-synthesis of ibogaine. It has been demonstrated in animals to have similar anti-addictive properties to ibogaine itself. It also potentiates the effects of barbiturates. Under UV-A and UV-B light its crystals fluoresce blue-green, and it is soluble in ethanol.
The Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) was the name of the Ghanaian government after the People's National Party's elected government was overthrown by Jerry Rawlings, the former head of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, in a coup d'état on 31 December 1981. He remained in power until 7 January 1993. In a statement, Rawlings said that a "holy war" was necessary due to the PNP's failure to provide effective leadership and the collapse of the national economy and state services.
Buxus sempervirens, the common box, European box, or boxwood, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Buxus, native to western and southern Europe, northwest Africa, and southwest Asia, from southern England south to northern Morocco, and east through the northern Mediterranean region to Turkey. Buxus colchica of western Caucasus and B. hyrcana of northern Iran and eastern Caucasus are commonly treated as synonyms of B. sempervirens.
Dr.Isaac K. Chinebuah was an academic and the foreign minister in the People's National Party (PNP) government of the Third Republic of Ghana.
Alhaji Imoru Egala was a Ghanaian politician and educationist. He held various positions in government in the Gold Coast and after independence of Ghana. He was the foreign minister of Ghana in the First Republic between 1960 and 1961.
Croton gratissimus, is a tropical African shrub or small tree with corky bark, growing to 8 m and belonging to the family of Euphorbiaceae or spurges. Young twigs are slender and angular and covered in silver and rust-coloured scales.
Amon Nikoi, born Seth Amon Nikoi, was a Ghanaian economist and diplomat. He was the Permanent Representative of Ghana to the United Nations between 1957 and 1960 as well as the Governor of the Bank of Ghana from 16 March 1973 to June 1977. He had a stint as the Finance minister and a presidential advisor between September 1979 to May 1981 under Hilla Limann during the Third Republic.
Dr. Bibi Ameenah Firdaus Gurib-FakimGCSK is a Mauritian politician and biodiversity scientist who served as the sixth president of Mauritius from 2015 to 2018. In December 2014, she was selected to be the presidential candidate of the Alliance Lepep. After Kailash Purryag resigned on 29 May 2015, both Prime Minister Sir Anerood Jugnauth and Leader of the Opposition Paul Berenger positively welcomed her nomination, which was unanimously approved in a vote in the National Assembly.
Manojit Mohan Dhar (1927–2003) was an Indian natural product chemist and the director of Central Drug Research Institute. He was known for his researches on peptides and the synthesis of the internucleotide bond and was an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1971, for his contributions to chemical sciences.
Apparicine is a monoterpenoid tricyclic indole alkaloid. It is named after Apparicio Duarte, a Brazilian botanist who studied the Aspidosperma species from which apparicine was first isolated. It was the first member of the vallesamine group of indole alkaloids to be isolated and have its structure established, which was first published in 1965. It has also been known by the synonyms gomezine, pericalline, and tabernoschizine.
Tabernaemontanine is a naturally occurring monoterpene indole alkaloid found in several species in the genus Tabernaemontana including Tabernaemontana divaricata.
Vobasine is a naturally occurring monoterpene indole alkaloid found in several species in the genus Tabernaemontana including Tabernaemontana divaricata.
Baldwyn Torto is a Ghanaian scientist. He is a chemical ecologist, and a Principal Scientist at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE). He also doubles as an extraordinary professor and the head of Behavioural and Chemical Ecology Unit, Department of Zoology and Entomology at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. He is a fellow of the Entomological Society of America, a fellow of the African Academy of Sciences, and a member of the American Chemical Society.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)