Dr. Thomas Atta-Darkwa

Dr. Thomas Atta-Darkwa is a senior lecturer from the Department of Agricultural and Bioresources Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR), Sunyani. He has served as the Head of the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering for the years 2017–2019. He also headed the Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering in the 2020–2021 academic year and the Department of Agricultural and Bioresources Engineering in 2022. He has and continues to serve on some academic-related boards of UENR. He has worked with a number of teams who has consulted for JICA and MoFA. Dr. Thomas Atta-Darkwa has over 8 years of experience in teaching, research, community engagements and university administration. He has authored/co-authored about thirty (30) publications in peer reviewed journals. His area of specialization is soil and water engineering with special interest in irrigation and drainage, groundwater flow modelling and pollution transport, parameter estimation, soil and water conservation, rural water supply and sanitation and climate change. He has conducted extensive research in solar powered automated irrigation and fertigation system during his post-doctoral fellowship at University of Ghana which was a collaboration between the University of Copenhagen, University of Ghana and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology from December, 2012- August, 2013. He also supervised a group of Agricultural Engineering undergraduate students who designed and constructed an automated irrigation system using arduino Nano Controller, sensors and GSM module. In 2015-2017, he worked with a team of expert to design and construct a Multi-feed Biomass Gasifire for low income earners in Ghana which was funded by MkTplace Agricultural Innovation – EMBRAPA, Brazil and tested biochar, a soil amendment tool on the growth of cabbage and maize. Currently he is working on a Hybrid solar and waste-to-energy project as member of the UENR project Team funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for the period 2020-2023. He is a reviewer for many academic journals and functions as an external examiner/assessor and moderator for some public/technical universities in Ghana.