The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has outdoored a laboratory whose instruments read what is in a tablet of medicine, finds a parasite in a drop of blood, measure what is in our water and our soil, and carries our telephone calls along strands of glass.

Being hosted by the Department of Physics at KNUST, the Ghana Photonics and Optics Laboratory (GPOL) is the second dedicated optics and photonics lab in the country and first at the University.

It is the aftermath of research work done by Dr Akyana Britwum and Dr Michael Kweku Edem Donkor, with seed funding from SPIE, the International Society for Optics and Photonics.

The vision is that the laboratory becomes a center of excellence in photonics and optics, training the next generation of scientists and innovators, advancing research.

The laboratory is therefore stocked with teaching and measurement kits, research and community-built instruments, and everyday lab equipment.

The SPIE, Optics and Photonics Global Industry Report 2025 states that the 2024 photonics-enabled marketplace was estimated at $2.5 trillion.

This, therefore, becomes a necessity for Ghana and Africa to have the capacity for photonics.

“A country that cannot use light well can buy answers from other people.

That is where Ghana has been, and it is what this laboratory has been built to change,” Professor Philip Antwi-Agyei, Provost, KNUST College of Science indicated.

According to him, what has grown beyond photonics was collaborations across the sciences including chemists, biologists, physicians, food scientists, engineers and now colleagues, who can put light to work on their problems.

Prof. Antwi-Agyei mentioned that it was “what a laboratory like this really offers a university.

It offers tools that allow us to ask the questions that matter to us and answer them here.”

Prof. David Asamoah, Pro Vice-Chancellor, KNUST said a laboratory of this kind meant a lot for Ghana, explaining that, every decision the country made about safety and trade rested on a measurement and for a long time both the instruments and the verdicts have come from outside this country.

He urged the government and regulators including the Food and Drugs Authority, the Standards Authority, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Minerals Commission who depended on optical measurement every working day to make the most of it.

Dr Peter de Groot, Chair of the GPOL Advisory Board; and the 2025 President of SPIE, said in a rapidly changing world, the challenge was to overcome barriers, build capacity and do great science, as well as energize entrepreneurial spirit.

He noted that it was why SPIE was helping to bridge this gap by creating an international capacity-building template, partnering with the right people, and building opportunities through Spectroscopy, Optics and Microscopy Training for West African Empowerment, among others.

The launch of the GPOL is a centrepiece of the NYANSAPƆ Photonics School for Health and Safety, involving 38 students from six African countries for laboratory sessions, plenary talks, distinguished lectures, and a keynote lecture taught by seventeen invited faculty members from Spain, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Côte d’Ivoire, and Togo.