Abraham Badu-Tawiah

Abraham Badu-Tawiah is a Ghanaian scientist who is a professor of chemistry at the Ohio State University. His research considers the development of mass spectrometry for the detection of disease. In 2017 he was awarded the American Chemical Society Arthur F. Findeis prize and in 2020 a Sloan Research Fellowship.

Early life and education Badu-Tawiah is from rural Ghana. He was one of three graduates of a high school class of 500 that went on to attend university. In 2005 he moved to the United States, where he joined the laboratory of R. Graham Cooks at Purdue University to study high-performance liquid chromatography. There he studied reactions in mass spectrometers, and started to investigate whether this unique environment could be used for synthesis. In 2012 Badu-Tawiah joined Harvard University where he worked in the research laboratory of George M. Whitesides. There he developed paper-based systems capable of performing molecular recognition. His research considers new mass spectrometry techniques for the detection of disease. Mass spectrometry offers several advantages over macrofluidic platforms, as they remain stable. Badu-Tawiah has worked on devices that can allow the early-detection of malaria and Zika virus.

Alongside disease detection, Badu-Tawiah works on novel analytical devices for photo- and electro-catalytic screening. 2017 American Society for Mass Spectrometry Research Award 2017 American Chemical Society Arthur F. Findeis Award 2018 American Society for Mass Spectrometry Faces of Mass Spectrometry

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