The International Institute of Welding (IIW) made history during its 75^th Annual Assembly and International Conference in Japan when the General Assembly agreed by consensus to appoint Professor Paul Kah of Cameroon as a member of the Board of Directors (BoD).

Professor Paul Kah is the first indigenous African to hold such a high-level position in IIW.

His roles as a BoD include defining the strategy of the association and govern its activities, proposing new member countries to be approved by the General Assembly, reviewing the work performed by the Technical Working Units, etc.

In his LinkedIn post, Professor Kah said “I am glad to announce that, I have been appointed as a member of the Board of Directors of the International Institute of Welding (IIW). Permit me to take this opportunity to thank the executives, the various member societies and personnel within the IIW community for supporting my candidature to assume the position as a member of the Board of Directors of IIW".

"Sincerely, I see this appointment to be more of the contributions I will make within the institution and for humanity at large than just carrying a fine title. I, therefore, uphold the IIW vision of linking industry, research and education to the advancement of welding and joining for a safer and sustainable world. By this vision, we can together improve the standard of living of humans globally. During my tenure of service from the year 2022-2025, I pledge to discharge my duties diligently and I am committed to serving with an open and free heart”, he explained.

In an interview with one of his friends, Dr Emmanuel Afrane Gyasi said the appointment of Professor Kah is well deserved and inspires the entire welding community in Africa as being recognised on such a professional and prestigious international platform.

He also said it is for Africans to see welding as an enabler which could turn the economic fortunes by the contributions, adding, "we are made in serving the world through manufacturing and production of quality welded products, skilled labor and professional curricula in welding and allied-joining and testing technologies".

Dr Gyasi narrated that Professor Kah has been a mentor since the days he used to work under his supervision as a master’s and doctoral student in year 2011 and 2014 respectively.

Furthermore, Dr Gyasi said that in year 2018 at LUT University Finland, Professor Kah played the role of a Custos when he defended his doctoral dissertation entitled: On adaptive intelligent welding: technique feasibility in weld quality assurance for advanced steels.

“I was motivated by Professor Kah to start a welding association or training institute in Ghana, which is called the Ghanaian Institute of Welding. The aim was to cascade IIW best practices in welding, become a member society of IIW and train welding professionals in Ghana. With the same motivation, I have facilitated the newly established Ghana Welding Bureau to become a responsible member society of IIW in recent times. Many thanks to Professor Kah for inspiring me to contribute my quota in welding for Ghana”, said Dr Gyasi.

Professor Paul Kah is the President of the Cameroon Welding Association (CWA), a delegate of IIW’s Technical Commission XII for Arc Welding Processes and Production Systems, a Professor in welding technology at University West in Sweden, a journal reviewer for welding in the World, and the author of a new book: Advancements in Intelligent Gas Metal Arc Welding Systems; Fundamentals and Applications.

He has to his achievements about 150 scientific publications on the web of science, SCOPUS.

"Finally, I would love to continue my professional and friendly relationship with Professor Kah to assist him and the entire IIW community, especially to offer support to welding organizations in African countries to become member societies of IIW, and benefit from the full range of IIW harmonized framework in welding activities (welder qualifications, personnel, and company certifications to international standards). Currently, IIW has five (5) member societies from Africa and these are Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Tunisia. We want to see more African countries joining the IIW", said Dr Gyasi.