Physics Comment Magazine March 2018 Issue Physics Comment March 2018_v1.3 | Page 7

Tribute to Professor Francis Allotey
It is with great sadness that the
South African Institute of Physics
has learned of the passing of
Professor Francis Allotey, a
Ghanaian mathematical physicist
on 2 November 2017.
As a founder member of many
international physics organisations,
Professor Francis Allotey was
extensively involved in the Pan
African development of Physics; he
was the founding president of the
African Physical Society (AfPS), a
member of the Abdus Salam
International Centre for Th eoretical
Physics (ICTP) Scientific Council
since 1996, a founding fellow of the
African Academy of Sciences (AAS)
and he served as President of
African Institute of Mathematical
Sciences Ghana.
Professor Francis Allotey had
strong ties to the South African
Institute of Physics, and the South
African physics community. In
the words of Professor Nithaya
Chetty, a former president of
the South African Institute of
Physics, and current vice-president
at large of the International Union
of Pure and Applied Physics,
Professor Francis Allotey dedicated
much of his life to bringing African
scientists together to talk about
African challenges,
and
he
strongly support edintra-African
collaboration and cooperation.
The South African Institute of
Physics pays tribute to a truly
remarkable and
internationally
renowned African
physicist
and mathematician.
Professor Francis Allotey will be
sorely missed by all his friends and
colleagues in the South African
physics community.
On behalf of the South African
Institute of Physics, we extend our
deepest sympathies to Professor
Allotey’s family, friends and
colleagues.
Tribute to Professor Stephen W. Hawking
Professor Stephen Hawking, the
famous Cambridge University
physicist
passed
away
on
Wednesday, 14 March 2018 at the
age of 76. He has captured the
imagination of many scientists and
the public at large on his beliefs and
knowledge on the origin of the
universe and the nature of gravity.
He was also a renowned author who
published a book in 1988 called ““A
Brief History of Time: From the Big
Bang to Black Holes,” where most
of his thoughts were documented
on the cosmos.
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Professor Hawking has association
with South Africa and in May 2008,
he attended the opening of the
National Institute for Theoretical
Physics (NITheP) at the Wallenberg
Research Centre at Stellenbosch
Institute for Advanced Studies
(STIAS).
He gave “strong and enthusiastic
support” for the Institute which was
also graced by the Minister of
Science and Technology, Mr
Mosibudi Mangena.
The full article can be found at:
http://stias.ac.za/news/2008/05/
hawking-gives-enthusiastic-
support-of-nithep/.