Personality of The Week: Prof. Samuel Kwofie

Prof. Samuel Kwofie

To end this month's Personality Dialogue is the first Professor of Materials Science and Engineering in Ghana, Prof. Samuel Kwofie. He shares with us his rich knowledge and experience. Enjoy the read as you learn along.

PROFILE
Prof. Samuel Kwofie is the first professor of Materials Science and Engineering in the country. He lectures at the Department of Materials Engineering at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. He is the immediate past Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering, formerly the Faculty of Chemical and Materials Engineering.

He is an alumnus of Independence Hall in KNUST and Ghana Senior High Technical School (GSTS-Takoradi). He hails from Elmina in the Central Region.

His skills and expertise include Powder Metallurgy, X-ray Diffraction, Mechanical Testing, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Failure Analysis, Mathematical Modeling, Experimentation, Characterization, Electron Microscopy, among others.

He has been lecturing in KNUST for close to thirty years and many prominent engineers and personalities have been trained by him.

INTERACTIVE SESSION
Who is Prof. Samuel Kwofie?
Prof. Kwofie is a professor at the Department of Materials Engineering in KNUST, and one of the foundation students of the Materials Engineering program in the university. Wow!

Please share with us your experience in secondary school.
I finished my O level in 1979, and my A level in 1981. My best days were in secondary school. We had six forms (form 1 to form 6). So if you were in second year or third year, you were not a senior, because there were people in fifth and sixth forms. We all lived together, it was lively and we were not many. You bond more in secondary school than in the university: you sleep together, do things together. You could be with someone for 5 years, others 2 years. Being in the university is serious business, you make friends but not as it was in secondary school.

Please tell us about your tertiary education.
I had my first degree in Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) here in KNUST. The program later became Materials Engineering when the collegiate system was introduced; with the Physics Department of the College of Science treating Materials Science, and Materials Engineering was for the College of Engineering.

I pursued my second degree in Materials Science and Engineering at the Brunel University London, UK. I obtained my PhD in MSE from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, where my main research focus was on the failure of materials by fatigue.

Did you choose Materials Engineering or you were given?
Materials Engineering wasn't around then, it was Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy: which was part of the Institute of Mining and Mineral Engineering because it was done together with UMaT, Tarkwa. They did the mining aspect: we did the mineral aspect.

We were three groups: the geological engineer was trained to search for the gold (ore), the mining engineer to bring out the gold (ore) and the metallurgical engineer to extract the gold (from the ore); in the end, we formed one group.

So initially I read Metallurgical Engineering, there was no Materials Engineering. It was when I was entering my third year that they realized Metallurgical Engineering in the Institute was limited to metals only especially gold, but Ghana had other metal deposits like iron, aluminum, etc.

There was the need to build capacity for the steel and aluminum making companies (ALUWORKS, VALCO, TemaSteel) that existed. And bringing that, it was called Materials Engineering, which involves metals, polymer, composites and ceramics. So when the Materials Engineering program was started, four people were needed and I was the last person to join. Interesting

We learnt during your time, university students were given free meals. Can you please tell us more about this?
Yes, it was so until some people said they don't want the meal; so were given money every week. We were given food three times a day and we had to claim it with a coupon.

It's natural anyway, that wherever people are needed, the government starts with money, though it may not continue. It will come to a time when nurses will not be sponsored anymore because of an increase in the numbers. Some students were baited with money to study hard to come to the university; we were given items such as toiletries and money to purchase radio to listen to news.

The government believed university students were being trained to grow and develop the country and hence the support was much available. The students were mature then. There were not much devices and vehicles like we have today, things have changed very fast.

Did you involve yourself in extra curricular activities when you were here on campus?
At that time there were not much of such activities, the main thing was student politics. Engineering in those days wouldn't give you much time to do those things; you're almost always in the lab, drawing or doing assignments. At that time, there were only two ladies reading Engineering. Wonderful

The students were very close then. We used to meet in Room C ( what is now known as LT - Lecture Theatre). And in those days there was no trail, you could be sacked instead. A class could start with so many students but not all would graduate. Some students didn't have time to get involved in certain activities.

Many people, especially the adult folk, usually say that due to the insurgence of mobile phones and other such devices nowadays, we don't study hard. Wouldn't it have been the same if your generation found itself in our current situation?
I finished my first degree without seeing a computer, but I did computer programming. Really? Very few people had calculators. During my time, discipline was very high, you couldn't even hug a lady in the presence of a lecturer. Discipline was the order of the day even in the culture of the country. Someone other than your parent could discipline you for wrongdoing, but it's not so these days.

And because most of the students at the time were not from well-to-do homes, they studied very hard. Many children are being pampered these days compared to former times.

Can you please give us a brief history of the Department and the Materials Engineering program?
The Department was part of the Institute of Mining and Mineral Engineering that ran Mining, Geological and Metallurgical Engineering. You know, there are different aspects of Metallurgy: extractive, mechanical, physical – but originally, Metallurgy in the Institute was mainly about gold, so it was the Department of Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy.

It was later realized that graduates of the Metallurgy program couldn't work in such places as VALCO, Steel Works, Aluworks, etc., though these companies also dealt with metals, and we were lacking in that aspect of Metallurgy. Thus, Materials Science and Engineering was brought in to cater for the other aspects of Metallurgy and Materials in general.

Railway lines and cars are made of metals, but we are not able to make them because we don't have interest in what we do with the materials. So Materials Engineering came in so that we learn about the aspects of materials and their uses.

I teach Mechanical Behaviour of Materials and Foundry Technology. There are much waste metals in the country, but we are not able to utilize them. Yet, if we melt these metals we can make useful products out of them.

How do you see the Department so far since you started lecturing?
The Department has a future. There was a time when Materials Engineering had just one student, the rest were in Extractive Metallurgy and Mineral Processing. I started lecturing in 1991, the numbers were still not encouraging.

Upon my return to KNUST after my PhD in 2000, I had 25 people reading Materials Engineering in 2001. In 2002, it became a full-fledged Department. By then, most of the people who started the programme had left, including the man who introduced it.

I then saw myself as the main person to stay and help build the Department, though there were some lecturers ahead of me. I was the second Head of Department. I saw the need to upgrade myself and hence did my Post Doctoral academic research (postdoc), which is done after PhD and focuses more on research to build knowledge and experience than just obtaining a certificate.

I became a professor in 2007. With the level the Department has reached now, it's not going back. I am glad the Department now has some if its own people as lecturers.

Do you think the Department needs help, especially from Government and other stakeholders to improve its teaching and learning experience?

By all means everybody needs help. You see, you can only help when you understand the situation. We need people who understand the programme in order to build it. We now have some past students trying to support the Department with some equipment.

Talking of help, we can talk about people being sponsored to study outside and then returning to teach the programme very well. We can also talk about procuring equipment to enhance studies. If I were to be in Government, I would make sure every industry has a Materials Engineer because everything they do involves materials. You need people who understand you to help you.

Please tell us about your achievements so far.
After school I realized many people did not understand Materials Engineering, no matter what you told them.

I had to advertise myself by working hard. People’s attention was drawn to Materials Engineering when I became a professor in the field. I have done some work about corn mill plating in Ghana. I have over 32 publications featured in journals of international repute and quite a number of conference proceedings. I have served as Head of Department and Dean for the Faculty of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering. Currently, I do consultancy for the mines regarding the balls used in milling.

In prospect, if we have furnaces for melting and heat treatment, we can produce metals for various applications which will be an achievement for the country.

Any message for the government regarding Materials Engineering?
In every place, you need three things to survive: energy, environment and material. The government through power cuts has seen the importance of energy, so we have the Ministry for Energy. Also, because of sanitation issues (they are not able to solve it anyway), there is the Ministry for Environment.

But the third part hasn't even started. If you don't have materials, how can you even build a generator? This is a significant part that is missing even in Africa. Environment gives matter and matter is material, and material provides energy. That is why we are the core.

Nuclear energy, wind energy, if you don't have the materials, how can you make a turbine? After production, waste material is generated. A better understanding of materials can help convert the waste into useful products.

Our motto as Materials and Metallurgical engineers is "The Core of Engineering Technology". What's your take on this?
The core of anything is its centre: around which everything else revolves. So there's no engineering without materials. Other engineers may design a vehicle or a certain part, but without material you can't make the product,(you can't materialize it), because your design will still be on paper. The civil engineer may design a building, but without concrete, steel, etc., the structure cannot be built. You can talk about the stone age, bronze age, iron age, they all involved material.

This country lags behind because our knowledge in Materials is very very low.

How can the situation be improved?
The improvement has started in school. Because of the lack of knowledge my people perish. That's why we've started teaching Materials Engineering. We believe that the students who are up-and-coming, after some time, when they multiply, will try to make use of the raw materials available to us (as a country). The unfortunate aspect is the job opportunity currently, because when you go outside, they are seriously in search of materials to make computers and other equipment.

What or who inspires you? 
My parents inspire me, and I also inspire myself. While a student, I believed that I had no reason to fail, and this kept me moving.

One man also inspired me, that was when I finished my PhD. After I made a presentation at a conference, he took my contact: I thought it was the usual exchange of contacts, he wrote to me that I should prepare for a conference which I did. Then later he told me my ticket was ready, bound for Tanzania.

It was there at that conference I realized I can move on to become a professor in my field. My works gained international recognition when I started publishing them. I could get people from China to want to come study during vacation. People get inspiration when they are recognized that is why I like to inspire students: to let them know they can do more. Eugene Arhin was one of my students.

Please  share with us your last words
Whatever you do, after school you'll be involved with materials. The world itself is made up of materials. We mostly think of who to employ us, but if we look around, there are many opportunities. For instance, people always build houses which have locks, you can also make keys and make money.

Just look around to find opportunities. With some capital, you can draw a business plan and start producing something. You don't have to do it yourself, but you need to know that this is what is needed.

Thank you so much Prof for your time and rich experience and knowledge shared with us. 

You are welcome. My door is always open.

Hello there, we hope your time was well served. Don't forget to leave a response in the comment box below.

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