Dr Akyana Britwum, Principal Investigator of the Ghana Photonics and Optics Laboratory (GPOL) at KNUST, has called on international partners to join efforts to advance photonics and optics education across Africa.

Speaking at the African Photonics Hour during SPIE Photonics West 2026 in San Francisco, Dr. Britwum highlighted GPOL’s progress and invited collaboration across scholarships and internships, laboratory equipment and infrastructure, and teaching and research support.

He noted that, beyond the initial SPIE grant, the laboratory has secured three additional grants and is progressing the acquisition of two key instruments: a through-packaging Raman system and a low-cost super-resolution microscope.

Dr Britwum also highlighted GPOL’s outreach work, delivered with the KNUST Photonics Student Chapter. The programme has reached over 6,000 students and trained more than 100 teachers, helping to strengthen practical photonics education in Ghana.

He expressed appreciation to SPIE and other partners for their continued support, and thanked Dr Peter De Groot, 2025 SPIE president for his commitment to enabling meaningful collaborations around GPOL. He emphasised that sustained collaboration is now the priority, to help GPOL move from early momentum to a stable, long-term platform for training and research that serves Ghana and the wider West African region.