Winners of the University of Environment and Sustainable Development (UESD), maiden Faculty Excellence Awards were on Saturday, 27th January, 2024 presented with their awards during the 4th Commencement Lecture held at the Auditorium, Multi-Purpose Building. to kick-start the 2023/24 Academic Year.
The Faculty Excellence Awards was initiated by the Deans of the School of Sustainable Development (SSD) and the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences (SNES) in late 2023 to acknowledge, reward, honour, and promote the research efforts of faculty members in their respective fields of competence.
Declaring the winners in the course of the programme, the Chairman of the Awards Committee, Dr. Prize. F. McApreko explained that the maiden award covered two cohorts, 2022 and 2023.
According to him, the “Research Publication” component was implemented based on a preliminary evaluation of the applicant’s total number of publications according to Scopus ranking, as well as additional rankings that were stipulated in the criteria. He went on to say that the most illustrious publications that were featured on Scopus served as the primary evaluation criterion.
For 2022, the top research publisher with 11 publications in Scopus journals was Dr. Nuworza Kugbey, Senior Lecturer and Head of SNES’s Department of Public Health; Dr. Jonathan Osei-Owusu, Lecturer, Department of Physics and Mathematical Sciences, SNES came second with 11 publications total, eight of which were featured in Scopus journals; and Dr. Owusu Fordjour Aidoo, Lecturer, Physics and Mathematical Sciences, SNES came third with a total of 10 publications total, eight of which were featured in Scopus.
In the 2023 category, Dr. Owusu Fordjour Aidoo, who placed third in the previous year, was the top publisher with 16 publications in Scopus; Dr. Jonathan Osei-Owusu came in second (again) with 11 publications, and Dr. Louis Kusi Frimpong, Lecturer, Department of Physical and Biological Sciences, SNES ranked third with 10 publications.
For their prizes, the top publishers for both 2022 and 2023, Drs. Nuworza Kugbey and Owusu Fordjour Aidoo, each received $200 and a citation, while the remaining winners each received a citation.
The Chairman of the Awards Committee expressed gratitude to the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Eric Nyarko-Sampson, and Management for supporting the Deans in initiating the excellence awards scheme which will be an annual one. He also acknowledged the tireless contribution of members of the committee that made the ceremony a success.