Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, visited the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) on May 14 to inspect construction progress on the Centre's new office complex.
The Vice Chancellor visited the Centre as part of scheduled construction site visits to the University's World Bank African Centres of Excellence (ACE) for Higher Education, the West African Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) and WACCBIP, as both near completion on their respective building projects.
At WACCBIP, Prof. Oduro Owusu and his team were guided through the two-storey complex by Prof. Gordon Awandare, Director of the Centre, who detailed the level of progress made, describing the nature and purpose of some the key facilities already completed.
The team inspected the multi-purpose Conference Hall, a PhD lecture room, a Board Room, and a state-of-the-art Cold Room. They also inspected progress on office spaces for the Centre's administrative staff, and workspaces for visiting fellows and WACCBIP students.
The team also checked the bioinformatics and ICT laboratories, which would be directly linked to the Centre's High-Performance Computing Unit installed to provide access to cluster computing services, and scientific software for data analyses, modelling and simulation, and information dissemination.
The Vice Chancellor was impressed with the progress made on the project. He was keen to point out that the pace of work needed to be maintained in order to make the projected completion date. He was expectant of a mid-June handing-over and commissioning date as scheduled by the contractor of the project.
Prof. Awandare thanked the Vice Chancellor for taking time out of his schedule to visit the Centre. He was encouraged by the support the Centre has already received from University management, which, according to him, was one of the factors for the successes the Centre has chalked since it was established. He assured the Vice Chancellor that, given continued support, the Centre will continue to do its part in raising the University's reputation for excellence.
“WACCBIP is the top ACE for biomedical research and training in the whole of West Africa,” Prof. Awandare said. “This is because of the support we receive from our funders and the University. We attract the best scientific minds because of the top-class structures we have in place here. If we continue to receive the support, we will keep flying the University's flag high all over the world.”
