Cape Coast, Oct. 27, GNA - The head of the Laser and Optic Fibre Centre (LAFOC) at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Professor Paul Kinsley Buah-Bassuah on Monday called on African governments to invest in advanced research to enable their scientists play a leading role in the "new frontiers of science".

He said there is the need to refurbish all teaching laboratories to serve as centres of excellence in advanced research, to help the universities attract expertise from other countries. Prof Buah-Bassuah was speaking at the opening of a two-week international workshop on "Multispectral Light Emitting Diode (LED) Imaging Microscopy for Applications in Agricultural and Biomedical Diagnostics" at the UCC.

Scientists from Kenya, Mali, Cote d'Voire, Senegal and Ghana are attending the workshop organised by the UCC in collaboration with Uppsala University in Sweden and is aimed at "enhancing hands-on project using laser technology to research into Agriculture and biomedical sciences". After the workshop, each participating country is expected to assemble its own equipment for the programming of research activity in their countries.

The Vice-Chancellor of UCC, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang in her welcoming address expressed gratitude to the International Science Programme (ISP) of Lund Institute of Technology in Sweden for building a new programme of research (imaging microscopy) and for "bringing research to the doorsteps of laboratories of developing countries". She said the workshop will cover programmes like "elements of electronics, laser optics, spectroscopy, image processing, computer programming and statistical analysis data".

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said LAFOC has used Swedish funded equipment to make a breakthrough in solving agricultural problems and was confident that the new programme being introduced will be put to good use. She appealed to the ISP to maintain Ghana and Senegal as the Centres of excellence for research to benefit the West African sub-region. Prof. Ahmadou Wague, President of Laser Atomic Molecular (LAM) Network, said his outfit in collaboration with ISP and other organizations had assisted several African countries especially Senegal in the area of scientific research.

He however expressed regret that the lack of equipment and skilled personnel in many laboratories in the Sub-Region was impinging on effective research and urged the beneficiary countries to avail themselves of the opportunity the ISP was offering to develop their own equipment. 27 Oct. 09