Dear Distinguished Guests, Members, Scholars, and Friends,
With immense pleasure, I say Akwaaba or Welcome as you visit the official website of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS). As the President, I am honored to introduce you to our virtual gateway, a platform that communicates our commitment to the advancement of knowledge, culture, and innovation in Ghana and beyond.
The Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences has a rich history dating back to its establishment in 1959. Throughout the years, GAAS has played a pivotal role in shaping the intellectual and policy landscape of our nation. The vision of the Academy is to be Ghana’s foremost merit-based learned society, committed to national development and the advancement of the world (GAAS Strategic Plan, 2020-2025).
We aim to make the wealth of knowledge and expertise held within our academy accessible to our national and global audience. This website serves as a dynamic hub for our Fellows, researchers, students, and the general public to explore the diverse realms of art, science, and culture that GAAS encompasses.
Here, you will find valuable resources, from research papers and publications to event announcements and profiles of our distinguished Fellows. Our commitment to the promotion of interdisciplinary scholarship and intellectual discourse is reflected in the various activities and initiatives you will discover on this platform.
As the world continues to evolve and face new challenges, our academy remains steadfast in its mission to foster creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration among scholars and practitioners. GAAS will continue to be at the forefront of initiatives that contribute to the betterment of society, be it through groundbreaking research, cultural preservation, or educational outreach.
I would like to use this opportunity to extend my appreciation to the Fellows of GAAS, past and present, who have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of knowledge and have made this Academy a beacon of excellence. I also thank our partners, supporters, and stakeholders for their unwavering commitment to our mission.
As we explore the boundless opportunities of the digital age, I invite you to join us on this journey of discovery and innovation. Let this website be a testament to the enduring spirit of intellectual curiosity and commitment to national development that defines the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Thank you for visiting our website, and I hope you find it to be a valuable resource in your quest for knowledge and inspiration.
Sincerely,
Prof. Kofi Opoku Nti
President, Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS)
Food and Public Health are inseparable. We talk about food in terms of safe food, healthy food, junk food, unhealthy food, and ultra-processed food. The healthiness of food (or lack thereof) is influenced by multiple factors including food marketing, food fraud, food policy, food politics, food justice, food democracy, and food environments. Of equal importance are the impacts of unhealthy food on human health and planetary health. Such impacts include hunger, and diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs) – obesity, hypertension, stroke, ischemic heart disease, and diabetes.
Food and Public Health are inseparable. We talk about food in terms of safe food, healthy food, junk food, unhealthy food, and ultra-processed food. The healthiness of food (or lack thereof) is influenced by multiple factors including food marketing, food fraud, food policy, food politics, food justice, food democracy, and food environments. Of equal importance are the impacts of unhealthy food on human health and planetary health. Such impacts include hunger, and diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs) – obesity, hypertension, stroke, ischemic heart disease, and diabetes.
Nation-building is an effort by a State – a political and legal entity in international law – to attune its citizens to its pursuit of the ideals of nationhood. Nation-building, thus, signifies both a political and moral need. Political because of the aspiration to forge a political unit whose citizens think, act and live in unified pursuit of demarcated ideals – in the case of Ghana – of the ideals of freedom and justice. And moral because the ideals such as freedom and justice are moral, in as much as they seek to ensure the harmonious coexistence of Ghanaians; as well as their survival, interests and welfare. For these reasons, politics furthers the ends of ethics, and so the former ought to be guided by the latter. Thus, the nation-state of Ghana, as a political entity in pursuit of the ideal of nationhood, ought to assume a moral duty to work unceasingly toward achieving the common good of Ghanaians. This lecture enunciates and defends the thesis that philosophers who have been affiliated with the University of Ghana have produced a body of thought and a systematic approach to philosophy that merits the status of a tradition of philosophy; and that this tradition is exemplified by distinctive moral philosophical perspectives that are germane to the task of nation building in Ghana.
The Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS), the nation’s premier learned society, today publicly launched a twenty-four-month Higher Education project on the theme, “Motivating Higher Education Reforms in Ghana – Towards Equity and Sustainability”. The US$116,000 project is sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Prof. Clifford Nii Boi Tagoe, Chair of the Project Steering Committee said in his welcoming remarks that over time, increasing low levels of public investment in, and support to, knowledge-producing institutions such as the Academy, has hampered their abilities effectiveness in commissioning and disseminating research findings to influence policy and shape public education. He said that notwithstanding, the Academy had not rested on its oars and continues to leverage its convening power to assemble learned teams and panels on critical issues in the arts and sciences at regularly organized public lectures, symposia, and forums.
On Thursday, 08 December 2022, the Academy hosted Professor Gérard Mourou, Nobel Prize winner in Physics for 2018, at a special lecture on “Extreme Light: Its Benefits to Science and Society. Prof. Mourou reflected on the work he and his PhD student, Donna Strickland, co-winner of the Nobel Prize did to receive the award. He said Chirped-pulse amplification, or CPA, which is really, the best in the world right now, is a technique for creating ultrashort, yet extremely high-energy laser pulses necessary in a variety of applications, including more precise and less expensive medical and surgical operations; clean and safe energy to replace fossil fuel and uranium usage options; as well as the removal of millions of orbital debris cluttering space.
Professor Ivan Addae-Mensah, a Fellow of the Academy on Friday 18th of November 2022 called for a review of the Free Senior High School programme, saying the current financing regime is not sustainable. He was delivering the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Lecture on the topic “Educational Reforms in Ghana and their Impact on the Youth.