On Tuesday 22 September, at 08:00 in the Amonoo-Neizer IDL Conference Centre, Ghana gets its a dedicated home for photonics research. The Ghana Photonics and Optics Laboratory (GPOL) opens at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi — and it isn’t opening quietly. Its launch sits at the centre of a six-day international training school that brings together 38 emerging scientists from six African countries and 17 photonics experts from three continents.

Why a photonics lab, and why now

Photonics is the science of using light to measure, image and sense — and it already touches problems Ghana knows well. Substandard and falsified medicines move through West African markets largely undetected. Glaucoma and newborn jaundice go undiagnosed until it’s too late in places far from a screening lab. Heavy metals from mining seep into soil and water and are usually only found after the damage is done.

The tools that catch these problems earlier already exist — devices that authenticate medicine without opening the package, imaging systems for early diagnosis, sensors that read contamination in seconds — but they’ve historically been imported, expensive, and, once broken, left that way. GPOL was built to change that equation: not just to use these instruments, but to build them, improve them locally, and train the people who will keep doing so.

GPOL is hosted at KNUST’s Department of Physics, led by Dr Akyana Britwum (Principal Investigator and Scientific Lead) and Dr Michael Kweku Edem Donkor (Technical Lead and Co-Principal Investigator), working with a network of international partners.

A school, not a conference

GPOL’s opening is timed to the inaugural NYANSAPƆ Photonics School for Health and Safety — and the name is deliberate. NYANSAPƆ is the Adinkra “wisdom knot,” a symbol of learning, ingenuity and adaptability drawn from the same proverb that gives KNUST its motto.

Unlike a typical scientific conference, NYANSAPƆ puts its 38 students inside working laboratories for six days. They learn the science behind each instrument, then operate it themselves — running technologies used in medical imaging, tissue and blood-flow measurement, and chemical analysis. When the school ends, the equipment and expertise stay at KNUST, becoming a lasting platform for research and regional collaboration rather than a one-week showcase.

The teaching faculty is a measure of how seriously the field is taking this effort. The launch keynote comes from Dr Peter de Groot, 2025 President of SPIE, the world’s largest professional society for optics and photonics. Distinguished lectures follow from Dr Daewook Kim of the University of Arizona, who builds optics for some of the world’s largest telescopes, and Dr Samuel Achilefu of UT Southwestern Medical Center, inventor of goggles that let surgeons see tumour cells during an operation. Laboratory modules are led by researchers from ICFO in Barcelona, Vanderbilt University, Aix-Marseille Université and Imperial College London, alongside faculty from INP-HB and Université Alassane Ouattara in Côte d’Ivoire, the University of Kara in Togo, and KNUST’s own researchers.

Students are arriving from more than 10 institutions across Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Kenya, Rwanda and Zimbabwe.

In their own words

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

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

Prof. Francis Kofi Ampong, Head of KNUST’s Department of Physics, put it in institutional terms: “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. The laboratory being commissioned during the week will serve our students and our research and have a lasting impact on Ghana’s scientific community.”

Taking it to the community

The school doesn’t stay inside the lab. It closes with a community outreach day at Hwiremoase, where the full cohort of students and faculty teaches photonics to hundreds of local pupils — the first link in the pipeline GPOL exists to build, from schoolchildren to the next generation of African photonics researchers.

Who’s behind it

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

About GPOL: The Ghana Photonics and Optics Laboratory is a teaching and research laboratory at KNUST dedicated to research, training and outreach in optics and photonics across Ghana and West Africa — from fundamental optics to applications in health, agriculture, industry and the environment.

About NYANSAPƆ: NYANSAPƆ is an international photonics training school hosted by KNUST and the KNUST Photonics Students Chapter, bringing hands-on optics education to students across Ghana and the wider region.

Media contacts: Dr Akyana Britwum (abritwum.cos@knust.edu.gh) and Dr Michael Kweku Edem Donkor (mkedonkor.cos@knust.edu.gh), Department of Physics, KNUST — photonics@knust.edu.gh