University of Cape Coast

I am an Associate Professor of Environmental and Nutritional Epidemiology with a strong research portfolio in nutrition and environmental health. I lead a public health research group (AmegahLab; X handle: @AmegahLab) in the Department of Biomedical Sciences with our work focused on the interface of nutritional and air pollution exposure effects on maternal, perinatal and cardiovascular health outcomes using modern and robust epidemiological and statistical methods, and also leveraging emerging data science techniques. My group also focuses on molecular characterization of air pollution exposures to help understand the biological mechanisms mediating air pollution exposure health effects among vulnerable populations as well as the ameliorating role of nutrition (vitamin D and antioxidant nutrients specifically) in air pollution exposure health effects. I lead the Ghana Urban Air Quality Project (GHAir), established in 2018 and anchors the Breathe Accra Project (https://breatheaccra.org/) which is part of the Bloomberg Philantropies funded Breathe Cities Initiative (https://breathecities.org/). Both projects focuses on deploying a mixture of low cost sensors and reference grade monitors in Accra and other urban settlements of Ghana to bridge important air quality data gaps, create public awareness of the air pollution problem for local action, and conduct epidemiologic research. I also focus on interrogating nutrition and air pollution policy issues in Sub-Saharan Africa with my work in this area gaining a lot of media attention and influencing public health policies in the region and beyond. I recently established a birth cohort in the Cape Coast Metropolitan Area (CAMAC) with the primary aim of unraveling the cellular and molecular mechanisms, and identifying social and nutritional modifiers of household air pollution health effects.  

I am a member of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE) and Nutrition Society UK, founding member of the AfriqAir Network, and collaborator of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) studies. I participated in the WHO expert meetings of the Global Platform on Air Quality and Health, and presently a member of the Exposure Working Group of the WHO Global Air Pollution and Health – Technical Advisory Group (GAPH-TAG). I was a member of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) & Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) Africa Integrated Assessment on Air Pollution, Climate Change and Sustainable Development Group and led the chapter on “Air quality and human health in Africa”. I am a renowned expert on air pollution and health in Africa with my views sought by both local and international media outlets on this and related issues, and was profiled in Scientific American October 2023 Edition in an article titled "Changing the Environment". I serve on the editorial board of Journal of Health and Pollution (Deputy Editor), Public Health Nutrition (Associate Editor), Plos Global Public Health (Academic Editor), Medicine (Epidemiology section), Scientific Reports, Environmental Epidemiology, Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, and Environmental Health. I have published widely in high impact factor medical and public health journals including the Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation, Environmental Health Perspectives, Bulletin of WHO, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Environmental Health, and Environment International, and have over 60 publications with an H-index of 31.  I have 17 years teaching experience at the University level and teach courses in Epidemiology, Biostatistics, Nutrition and Environmental Health