Francis Allotey

Francis Kofi Ampenyin Allotey was a Ghanaian mathematical physicist, known internationally for the "Allotey Formalism" in soft X-ray spectroscopy. In 1966 he and Daniel Afedzi Akyeampong became the first Ghanaians to earn doctorates in mathematical sciences, and in 1974 he became Ghana's first full professor of mathematics.

Early life and education

He was born on 9 August 1932 in Saltpond, in the Central Region, to Joseph Kofi Allotey, a merchant who owned a bookshop, and Alice Esi Nyena Allotey, a dressmaker. Reading the biographies of scientists in his father's shop drew him to science. He attended St John the Baptist Catholic Boys' School in Saltpond and was in the first intake of Ghana National College, founded by Kwame Nkrumah in 1948. He went on to the University Tutorial College and the Borough Polytechnic in London, earned the Diploma of Imperial College in 1960, where Abdus Salam taught him, and completed a master's and a PhD at Princeton University in 1966.

Research

His work on soft X-ray spectroscopy produced the method now called the Allotey Formalism, and in 1973 he received the UK's Prince Philip Golden Award for it.

KNUST and science leadership

At the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology he became head of mathematics and later Dean of the Faculty of Science, founded the university's computer centre and served as Pro-Vice-Chancellor. He was President of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, President of the Ghana Institute of Physics, founding President of the African Physical Society and a founding fellow of the African Academy of Sciences. He brought Ghana into the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics and sat on the scientific council of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics from 1996.

Honours and death

He received the Millennium Excellence Award in 2005 and an honorary doctorate from Karlstad University in 2006. He died on 2 November 2017, aged 85.