OU researcher wins prestigious award for her work to empower rural schools in Ghana

Lois Damptey, a PhD student in the School of Engineering and Innovation at the Open University (OU) has won a ‘Youth Excellence award in Science and Engineering’ in Ghana.

Lois’ PhD is funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). Under the supervision of Professor Satheesh Krishnamurthy, Prof N.S. Braithwaite and Prof Vasant Kumar (from University of Cambridge), her PhD work focused on providing low-cost technological solutions to treat wastewater streams.

Each year, millions of children under the age of five die due to waterborne diseases and a lack of accessibility to clean drinking water. Lois’ research work focusses on surface modification of low cost and environmentally friendly materials to degrade chemical organic compounds present in waste water using sunlight. The motivation of the project is to create a solar powered water filtration system for all, mainly looking at developing countries like Ghana as a case study.

Lois was selected out of a competitive pool of amazing scientists and engineers who have helped in the development of Ghana and internationally at the 2022 edition of the GhanaWeb Excellence Awards.

On her award win, Lois said:

“I’m delighted to have been awarded as Ghana’s best youth excellence in Science and Engineering for my work in empowering rural schools with practical STEM education in experiential engineering education.

“As a PhD student in STEM school of the OU, it was a fantastic opportunity and a heart-warming feeling to work for the betterment of my local community and to be recognised for my developmental contribution in providing accessibility of education through engineering/STEM to children of Ghana.”

Lois has served as a beacon to young scientists and engineers especially females through various developmental projects.

Through her two non-profit governmental organisations; Sankofa Mentorship Hub and Dear Young Graduate, helps empower rural schools in Ghana with practical STEM education in experiential engineering education and provide accessibility to further education (aimed at SDG4) to over 50,000 international students.

She also lent her voice and feedback to OpenSTEM Africa project conducted by the OU.