Mr Benjamin Amoah

AIMS 2014
Improving our understanding of social and climatic factors affecting tropical disease

Mr Benjamin Amoah, from Ghana, is currently pursuing a PhD in Spatial Epidemiology at Lancaster Medical School, Lancaster University, United Kingdom. “Before AIMS, I wanted to become a researcher/lecturer, however, this dream was vague until AIMS presented me with opportunities to shape and advance my career. Interacting with people from all over the world made me meet and network with people who have made a tremendous impact on my academic journey. The special talks on how to advance one’s career and the research phase helped me in shaping my career.”

“The appropriate description of my experience at AIMS is the phrase ‘life-changing. I am confident that whoever contributes anything to AIMS is directly contributing to Africa’s development.”

“AIMS gave me exposure to an excellent and challenging learning environment. Interacting with lecturers and tutors from all over the world who delivered excellent lessons and presented challenging problems inculcated in me critical thinking, hardwork and resilience which are key to surviving the AIMS Master’s program. Interacting and sharing ideas with 39 course mates who were also burdened with the problems of Africa and passionate about contributing their best to the development of Africa was an opportunity to discuss how we can use mathematics as wheels for Africa’s development.”

Immediately after completing his Master’s at AIMS Ghana, he had the opportunity to work on a joint project between AIMS Ghana and the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology (ETH). In this project, the team developed, implemented, and evaluated a prenatal care system based on mobile phone and portable ultrasound scan machines. The project aim was to improve prenatal care in rural communities where pregnant women had not been able to access quality antenatal care for several reasons (Amoah, B., Anto, E. A., & Crimi, A. (2014). Phone-based prenatal care for communities and remote ultrasound imaging. MobMed Prague).

His current research, is focused on developing and applying statistical methods relevant to the geospatial analysis of studies aimed at improving our understanding of social and climatic factors affecting spatial and temporal variation of some tropical disease. “I am grateful to be financially supported by the AIMS Alumni Small Research grant in my current research project in Malawi.”