Personality of The Week: Dr Frank Ofori Agyemang

Dr F.O. Agyemang, MATESA POTW

Meet Dr Frank on this week's Personality Dialogue show. He tells us about himself, shares his knowledge and experience with us. This is an exclusive, in-depth interview with the nanomaterials expert, deliberately enjoy the show to the very end.

Who is Dr Frank Ofori Agyemang?
I am from Jakobu, a town in Amansie Central district close to Ashanti Bekwai, Obuasi Road. I have a large family, with many step siblings. My dad passed away while I  was writing my PhD dissertation. I am married with a kid. Well done Doc

Please tell us about your education.
Growing up I have always loved to be an engineer. We were the first batch of WASSCE students (2006). I completed Kumasi Academy, popularly known as Kumaca.

Before I applied for admission to KNUST, I read a lot about the programs I chose, including Materials Engineering though Pharmacy was my first choice. Before I chose MSE, a friend who was schooling outside introduced me to it, I then read about it and realised it was similar to Chemical Engineering, the only difference being that Chemical Engineering deals with more of processing while Materials deals with knowing what goes into the processing.

I was awarded scholarship to pursue an integrated Masters-PHD in Nanomaterials technology. In my first year as a Masters student, I worked on Nanomaterials for Environmental applications; so I even worked on using nanofibres to treat waste water. I realised there are a lot of potentials with nanofibres in the energy sector; so I worked on super capacitors.

Supercapacitors are energy storage devices and they are much like batteries, but their energy density is comparatively high. Once that is improved it will take over the battery market. More practically, batteries store their energy in the bulk of the material while supercapacitors store energy at the interface; so this is a surface phenomenon. If you understand Transport Phenomena, then you can understand that. Wow!

Did you want to be a lecturer or a practising engineer?
To be honest, growing up, I wanted to be an engineer, because I have always admired engineering. It didn't occur to me I would become a lecturer. When I finished my PhD studies, I later on became a lecturer.

Maybe someday I will just go to the field because I really want to practise some of these things, you just can't be in the classroom. I really love research, so maybe I could work in the research department of some company.

How was the Department during your time?
Back then when I was a student here, there was Prof. Momade; Dr. Gikunoo taught me and he left for his PhD when I was in second year. Prof. Kwofie, Dr. Adjaottor taught me; Prof. Andrews came in when I was in third year, Dr. Arthur was two years ahead of me, so when I was in first year he was in third year.

The Department has really improved in all aspects; in terms of student population, academic performance; we have seen massive improvement. There have been worldwide opportunities for students such as that of ASU (Arizona State University).

Now people are beginning to understand Materials and Metallurgical Engineering and are advocating for it, just that sometimes there are political issues.

Doc, please tell us more about how politics is affecting the development of our nation and the continent.
When things are being imported, some people have their 'percentage', and most of them are politicians. They try to find ways and means to block local production channels, that is why we are really struggling as a country. The companies and industries that were set up be Kwame Nkrumah, some are in operation, others have collapsed. Imagine if we are able to put up many establishments, most engineering students would get jobs.

The mentality of Africans is selfishness – only one person gains and the rest suffer – they don't care. When something is produced in the country, the kind of mindset we give to the product is really disheartening; it discourages people from doing things. We the citizens as well as the leaders are to blame.

One more thing is about kickbacks, when a contract is given to someone, politicians still want kickbacks such that the amount of money to be used for the contract becomes less. At the end of the day, the contractor uses inferior materials for such purposes. It's all about we and the politicians having a change of mind.

Even on campus, when people have political roles, you see how they squander students' monies. So from here, they go into politics, then the same thing continues. Some of them don't even work. All their lives have been just politics and they are duping people with lies. When the person knows it is green, because of political affiliations, they have to say it is brown at all cost.

When I was a student in South Korea, there were corruption allegations against the president, the cases were investigated and she was impeached and jailed because the whole country united. But here in Ghana, that cannot be the case. It will just be covered up and then forgotten. This is revealing!

Now let's come to campus life, how was KNUST when you were here as a student?
In first year, I was in Republic Hall; then second year I moved to Indece, third year I was in a hostel and in final year, I  went to Unity Hall. During then, you could easily get accommodation in the halls.

Though I first was in Republic Hall, now I feel more affiliated to Unity Hall (Conti) than Repu. During my time, before you come to University, you're a bit older. In terms of maturity, those times, there were students who were into business and other things. But these days, just from high school, they jump into the university, so some of them are naive.

But overall, the population has greatly increased. In terms of infrastructure, Professor Obiri Danso has really developed the university. Wonderful

Regarding the conversion of single-sex halls to mixed, is it really a laudable initiative or more practical steps could have been taken?
In South Korea where I was, though my university was a Christian one, all the halls were mixed. If a hall is single-sex, that's fine, and if it's mixed too, I don't see any role that plays on the academic performance of students; maybe, entertainment-wise. I think it's okay if it's left that way. Probably the Management knows better.

 I thought because of insecurity issues, especially for females off-campus, the initiative was going to bring more of them to campus. Bringing in males to Africa Hall gives in some element of defeat to the or whatever we want to do. Rightly said 

We believe that Materials and Metallurgical Engineering are the core of Engineering technology, what’s your take on this?
For me if I have the opportunity to study again, I’ll still read Materials Engineering because during my Masters-PhD, I realised everything is just about materials.

Those in Chemical Engineering end up just working on materials for their Masters-PhD, just that different names are given to the programs; and whatever they synthesize is a material for a specific application, so it’s just materials. If you don’t understand structure-property relationship you cannot develop anything.

Do you think our world needs Materials and Metallurgical engineers?
Yes, every single day, because we'll never stop producing. Once you're into production, you can't do without a Materials Engineer or  Metallurgist, and metals are the most widely used engineering materials. Since we've not stopped mining, we'll always need a metallurgist. The day we'll stop mining, we'll stop using metals and we're not willing to give up metals. Absolutely

Are there improvements you would want to see in our Department?
That which I have always been praying about is we getting some equipment such as XRD, SEM, Potentiostats, EDS, Personal FTIR and XRF, so that the few things we can do in the lab, students can know the structure and see how it can be manipulated to change the property.

Because, anytime a material is produced for a particular application, it's the structure-property that gives the final goal for its performance. So I wish we have these equipment in our lab to help students understand the program they are reading.

Lastly, I have heard that Government wants to set up foundry shops, one in KNUST and one in Accra. I am just hoping that the one in KNUST comes to the department so that at least students will see the importance of the program they are reading. Certainly

Were you involved in any campus activities during your undergraduate years?
I was just a class rep from third year to final year. The class rep then was more of a political person; he became the GESA Organizer and afterward, the GESA President.

Please tell us about your achievements so far.
In high school, Kumaca, from second year first term to the time I completed, I was always on top of my class. Reading Materials Engineering, I have always been on top of my class, from first semester to the time I completed. At my graduation, I was awarded the best Materials Engineering student. Wow! Interesting

Who or what motivates you?
I always look at the bigger picture. What motivates me is trying to do something for humanity. It's like anytime you serve people today, you don't know when they'll also serve you.

Please share with us your last words.
For students reading Materials and Metallurgy, I always encourage them that they are not lost but are at the right program. Sometimes, when we meet our colleague lecturers in other departments, they always confess to us the importance of the program we are handling especially those in electrical and computer engineering reading on semiconductors.

 I will advise that students should keep on and not listen to what others are saying to bring them down. We are always praying that one day we will get visionary leaders who will know the importance of processing because the world is composed of three things: Environment, Energy and Materials, so you can't do away with materials. Wonderful.

Thank you Doc for having time enough for engaging us in such a fascinating way.

Thank you  too for the opportunity.

On the MATESA Personality Dialogue show, we go the extra mile to bring you intriguing facts and info about the Personality. This is what makes us unique, this is what makes us stand out.

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