The Governing Council of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, (KNUST) at its 292nd (Special) Meeting held on Wednesday, May 13, 2026 appointed Professor Christian Agyare as the next Vice-Chancellor of the University.
His four-year term of office will begin effective 1st August, 2026 to July, 31, 2030.
Prof. Agyare succeeds Prof. Mrs. Rita Akosua Dickson, whose tenure of office officially ends on July 31, 2026.
His appointment makes him the 13th Vice-Chancellor of KNUST since the University was established on October 6, 1951.
A distinguished academic, globally recognized researcher and accomplished institutional leader, Prof. Agyare brings more than two and a half decades of dedicated service to KNUST and the international academic community.
Widely respected for his transformational leadership, strategic vision and outstanding contributions to pharmaceutical sciences and higher education management, he currently serves as Provost of the College of Health Sciences, the University’s largest and most complex academic college.
Prof. Agyare obtained his Bachelor of Pharmacy and Master of Pharmacy degrees from KNUST before earning a Doctor rerum naturalium (Dr. rer. nat.) degree from the University of Münster, Muenster, Germany.
He subsequently held postdoctoral and research appointments at Novartis/Seeding Labs in Boston and at the University of California, San Francisco, where he worked on cutting-edge discovery in parasitic diseases and advanced pharmaceutical research.
These international experiences shaped his global outlook and positioned him within influential scientific and academic networks across the world.
As a renowned Professor of Pharmaceutical Microbiology, Prof. Agyare has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed research publications and earned an H-index of 36, an i10-index of 84 and over 5,000 citations.
His remarkable scholarly output has earned him recognition among top scientists globally and among the top 100 researchers in Ghana in the AD Scientific Index 2026 rankings.
His research expertise spans natural products pharmacology, antimicrobial resistance, wound healing, ethnopharmacology, parasitology and anticancer drug discovery with immense relevance to healthcare delivery and scientific advancement in Africa and beyond.
Over the years, he has secured more than $11 million in competitive research grants and funding support from internationally respected organizations, including the German Research Foundation (DFG), German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the Mastercard Foundation and the World Bank.
The appointed Vice-Chancellor’s global academic standing is further demonstrated by his election as the first African member of the Board of Directors of the Society of Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research (GA), as well as his membership on the editorial boards of more than thirty international journals among several association both home and abroad.
Source: GNA
