Conversations about Mineral Industry Education: Prof. Richard Amankwah of UMaT, Ghana

African mineral scientists and engineers need to share their stories, their observations, and their thoughts on the field with their peers and young people. From time to time, I will feature some of these on this blog. Prof. Richard K. Amankwah, Associate Professor of Mineral Engineering, University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) in Tarkwa, Ghana, recently visited Penn State University. I took the opportunity to have a brief conversation with him about his background and training, and some of his thoughts on the general topic of minerals industry education and research in Africa. In the first part of the interview Prof. Amankwah shares about his childhood and early education through his bachelors and masters studies at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). Next our conversation moves to the beginnings of his academic career at UMaT and the ensuing Ph. D. research at Queen's University in Canada. The conversation concludes with his post-doctoral academic career and thoughts about the future.