
Prof (Mrs) Rita Akosua Dickson (PhD, MPharm, GCAP, BPharm, FPSGH, FGCPh, MCPA) is the Vice Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, and has served as the Pro Vice Chancellor of KNUST from October 2018 to July 2020, and the first female to hold this elected position in the university’s history. She is a board member of the Pharmacy Council and Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana
Prior to her appointment as pro vice chancellor in 2018, she was the dean of the faculty of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences. Professor Dickson is an accomplished Phytochemist whose scientific knowledge and research expertise have impacted the international scientific community in terms of training, mentorship and scientific appraisals.
Her research work spans the identification and development of bioactive natural products as standard medicines for the treatment/management of communicable and non-communicable diseases with emphases on anti-infective, wound-healing, anti-inflammatory, anti-pyretic, antidiabetic, leishmanicidal, pediculocidal and cercaricidal properties, based on the ethnopharmacological knowledge of selected medicinal plants, as well as bioactive bacterial Multidrug-Resistance (MDR) modifying agents and efflux pump inhibitors (EPIs) from natural sources. She has recently expanded the scope of her research activities to include food security by exploring bioactive natural products with potential as pesticides and larvicides.
As a fellow of the Ghana College of Pharmacists, Prof. Dickson has served on several committees locally and internationally in the area of Pharmacy Education and Training and was a member of the Steering Committee of the Ghana National Medicines Policy Programme and International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP)-UNESCO UNITWIN Centre for Excellence in Africa (CfEA) platform. She is a member of the Commonwealth Pharmacists Association (CPA). She again served as the National Coordinator of the West African Network of Natural Products Research Scientists (WANNPRES) and serves as the Country-Co-ordinator for Working to Advance STEM Education for African Women (WAAW) Foundation.