Daniel Akyeampong

Daniel Afedzi Akyeampong (born November 24, 1938 in Senya Beraku , Ghana ; † March 7, 2015 in Accra , Ghana) was a Ghanaian mathematician and university professor. He was the first Ghanaian to do a PhD in mathematics.

Life and research

Akyeampong attended Senya Beraku Local Council School from 1945 to 1953 and then the Mfantsipim School in Cape Coast . In 1960 he began his studies at the University of Ghana and graduated in 1963 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. The University of Ghana was founded in 1948 as the University College of the Gold Coast, a college of the University of London , England. Although Ghana gained independence in 1957, the university did not achieve full independence until 1961. In 1963 he traveled to London, England to continue his studies at the University of London and at the same time at Imperial College in London. He studied mathematical physics at the University of London and received his doctorate in 1966 with the later Nobel Prize winner Abdus Salam with the dissertation: Applications of Higher Symmetry Groups to Particle Physics. In addition to his doctorate, he received a DIC (Diploma of Membership of Imperial College) in Mathematical Physics in 1966. Under the direction of Professor Salam, the International Center for Theoretical Physics in Trieste (ICTP) was founded in 1964 and Akyeampong was one of the first Fellows of the ICTP in 1964. He was an associate from 1967 to 1975 and a senior associate from 1976 to 1993. He became an Honorary Associate in 1994 and was invited to Trieste in 2014 on the 50th anniversary of the ICTP to receive an award as a Pioneer Fellow.

In 1966 he returned to Ghana and became a lecturer in mathematics at the University of Ghana. In 1970 he married Charlotte Sally Newton, with whom he had three children. At the University of Ghana he was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1972, Associate Professor in 1976 and the first Ghanaian to be appointed full professor of mathematics in 1982. Since his promotion to associate professor in 1976, he was head of the mathematics department and held this position until 1983. After a short time he was again Head of the Mathematics Department, this time from 1985 to 1988, followed by a third period from 1994 to 1999. Between his second and third terms as Head of the Mathematics Department, he was Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana.

At international level he was, among other things, the deputy editor of Afrika Matematica , a journal of the African Mathematical Union. He was a member of the Editorial Advisory Board, Discovery and Innovation, a journal of the African Academy of Sciences; from 1976 to 1994 a reviewer for Mathematical Review in Michigan, USA; 1988 Member of the Advisory Board for the World Science Report of UNESCO (Paris); 1986-1993 member of the Standing Committee on Freedom in Scientific Conduct (SCFCS) of the International Council for Science (ICSU); Member of the Executive Council of the International Science Council (ICSU), Paris , France, in 1993 and later Vice President from 1996 to 1999. He has participated in over 100 international scientific conferences and workshops, where he has served as either chair, panelist or moderator.

Publications

"Tensor harmonics in the helicity basis", J. Math. Phys. 1979, 20, no. 3, 505-508.
"The scalar behavior of charged vector meson theory at high energy", Nuclear Phys. 70 1965 630-640.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Akyeampong, Daniel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Akyeampong, Daniel Afedzi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Ghanaian mathematician and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH	November 24, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH	Senya Beraku , Ghana
DATE OF DEATH	March 7, 2015
Place of death	Accra , Ghana