Dr. Thomas Mensah, the reknowned Ghanaian chemical engineer and inventor who contributed to the development of fiber optic manufacturing and nanotechnology has passed away. Today if you’re able to text, send pictures, and videos at a fast rate over the internet, give credit to this man; Dr. Thomas Mensah.
Who was Dr. Thomas Mensah?
Dr. Mensah attended Adisadel College in Cape Coast, Ghana, and completed his undergraduate studies in chemical engineering at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology(KNUST).
He received a French government fellowship to study at Montpellier University in France, where he also participated in a program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and obtained a certificate in Modeling and Simulation of Chemical Processes in 1977.
Dr. Mensah graduated with his PhD in Chemical Engineering from Montpellier University a year later.
Dr Thomas Mensah worked at Air Products and Chemicals from 1980 to 1983.
In 1983, Dr. Mensah joined Corning Glass Works, working in fiber optics research at Sullivan Park, New York. Researchers at Corning had previously developed optical fiber with loss below the crucial attenuation limit of 20 dB/km, but the fibers could not be manufactured at rates higher than 2 meters per second. Dr. Mensah improved the manufacturing process through a series of innovations, raising the speed of manufacture to 20 meters per second by 1985. This made the cost of optical fiber comparable to traditional copper cables. Dr. Mensah received the Corning Glass Works Individual Outstanding Contributor Award for this work in 1985. His work ultimately raised speed of manufacture above 50 m/s.
Dr. Mensah moved to Bell Laboratories in 1986, where he led a program to develop the first laser-guided weapons for the US Department of Defense guided missile program. This program enabled the development of missiles that travel at the speed of sound (Mach 1).
Dr. Mensah was president and CEO of Georgia Aerospace Systems, which manufactures nanocomposite structures used in missiles and aircraft for the US Department of Defense.
On February 24, 2017, CBS Television News ran a segment for Black History Month featuring Dr. Mensah titled “The Engineer who Revolutionized the Internet.”
Dr Thomas Mensah also served on the board of several organizations, including the AIChE National Board of Directors (1987–1990), and is a current Trustee of the Board of AIChE Foundation and a board member for the NASA Space Grant Consortium at Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr Mensah was elected a Fellow of the US National Academy of Inventors in 2014.
He was chairman of Entertainment Arts Research Inc, a virtual reality and video game design company.
Since early 2016, Mensah has been working to create a “Silicon Valley of the South” in the US State of Texas.
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