Angela Ankomaah Tabiri, a quantum algebra researcher, was born in 1990 in Accra, Ghana. She graduated from Anum Memorial School at Ashaiman Middle East in Accra and then studied business at Accra’s Girls Senior High School. Fluent in Twi (Akan Kasa) as well as English, she received a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics and economics from the University of Ghana at Legon in 2011. There she was a member of the chorale ensemble and the hockey team. From 2011 to 2013, she served as a teaching assistant in mathematics at her alma mater. She then earned a Master of Science in mathematics from The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), a pan-African network of Centers of Excellence for postgraduate training in mathematical sciences, research, and public engagement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in Ghana in 2014. A year later, in 2015, Tabiri received a postgraduate diploma from the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy, which Pakistani Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam founded. The institute operates with an agreement between the Italian government, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Tabiri earned the Doctor of Philosophy from the School of Mathematics and Statistics College of Science of the University of Glasgow in Glasgow, Scotland, in 2019, where she was awarded a Schlumberger Foundation Faculty for the Future Fellowship. Her doctoral dissertation was Quantum Group Actions on Singular Plane Curves. Throughout much of her educational career, she has faced challenges as a woman in a discipline long dominated by men. After completing her doctorate, she returned to her native Ghana to support the teaching and learning of mathematics.
In 2019, Tabiri was an AIMS-Google AI Postdoctoral Fellow at AIMS-Ghana. In addition, she taught courses in linear algebra in the MSc program and Mathematics for Machine Learning in the AMMI program. Her research interests include noncommutative algebra, quantum groups, and quantum homogeneous spaces. Tabiri is the founder of Femafricmaths, an NGO that promotes African women in mathematics. Also, in 2019, with Femafricmaths, Tabiri organized the first Science Slam, a science communication event where scientists’ relevant research is fun in Ghana.
Dr. Angela Tabiri, n.d. – Courtesy meetmentors.org
In 2020, Tabiri was one of the presenters for “Connections for Women: Quantum Symmetries,” sponsored by the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute at the University of California at Berkeley.
In 2021, Dr. Angela Ankomaah Tabiri, a Board Member with Kente Connect (improvement in digital literacy in rural Africa), conducted a seminar for PiWORKS at AIMS Ghana and led Femafricmaths. She continues to research, teach and encourage youths, especially girls, to engage in math, science, and technology.
Otis D. Alexander, Library Director at Saint John Vianney College Seminary & Graduate School in Miami, Florida, has also directed academic and public libraries in the District of Columbia, Indiana, Texas, and Virginia. In addition, he has been a library manager in the Virgin Islands of the United States as well as in the Republic of Liberia. His research has appeared in Public Library Quarterly, Scribner’s Encyclopedia of American Lives, and Virginia Libraries journal. Alexander received the Bachelor of Arts and Master of Science degrees from the University of the District of Columbia and the Master of Library & Information Science degree from Ball State University. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree from International University and studied additionally at Harvard Graduate School of Education Leadership for Academic Librarians, Oberlin Conservatory of Music Voice Performance Pedagogy, and Atlanta University School of Library & Information Studies.
