Honorary fellows: Professor Francis Kofi Ampenyin Allotey - African Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Ghana

For his inspirational role in the promotion of physics in Africa, in particular for his role in establishing the African Physical Society.

Francis Allotey is an internationally respected mathematical physicist.  Born in the Central Region of Ghana he came to London in the late 1950s to study at Imperial College before going on to obtain his master’s and doctorate degrees at Princeton University.  During his research on soft x-ray spectroscopy he established the principle which has become known as the "Allotey Formalism".

On returning to Ghana he taught in the Department of Mathematics at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), becoming Head of Department, founder and first Director of the KNUST Computer Centre, Dean of the Faculty of Science and Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University.  More recently he has been working closely with the Institute of Physics in the establishment of the IOP Resource Centre at Ada, and played a crucial role in attracting government support for the project.

Allotey has been a key leader in the promotion of physics both within Ghana and more widely across Africa.  He has served in a senior capacity on many Ghanaian and international institutions, from Chairman of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission to the scientific council of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy.  He is currently President of the Ghana Institute of Physics, Vice President at large of International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) and President of Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Allotey is a founder and trustee of the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), Ghana, which is due to open in September 2012, and was the founding President of the African Physical Society on its formation in January 2010.