1. Profile of Laura Atuah, PhD
Dr. Laura Atuah is a Lecturer at the Department of Horticulture, KNUST, Kumasi, since the
year 2000. She is an Agriculturist with research interest in the use of sustainable remedial
treatments for the enhancement of soil for both crop production and amenity purposes. She
has undergone several scientific and professional training programmes. Prominent among
them being training in innovative research, under a professional capacity building in
Agricultural Research for Development (2005) in Wageningen,the Netherlands. During her
MPhil Programme, she developed a keen interest in researching into safety in the landscape
when she did part of her research in Naivasha, Kenya where plants were used to clean
effluents from the greenhouses of a flower exporting company in Kenya.
Her passion and concern about how to provide scientific tested solution to the numerous
environmental challenges facing the industrial and mining sector in Ghana, further led her
to research into remediating metal contaminated soils for her PhD. She worked on in-situ
remediation of metal contaminated soils; phosphate amendments and earthworm toxicity. In
her research she determined the toxicity of potential phosphorus (P) source amendments,
characterised contaminated soils from lead (Pb) contaminated field soils from disused mines
near Rookhope downstream from Grove rake mine, Durham and Graiggoch, Wales both in
the UK. She also used findings from the various toxicity tests to test the efficacy of different
P sources at both none lethal and 50% lethal concentrations (LC50) in immobilising Pb in
both the Rookhope and Graiggoch soils. She developed means of eliminating the toxic effect
of bone meal (a source of phosphorus) to earthworms by various methods as washing,
incinerating and co-amending bone meal amended contaminated soil with green-waste
compost.
As a researcher with safety of the environment for food crop production running as her
theme, she was part of a KNUST – Texas A&M collaboration in a study on Enhancing
Sustainable Production Systems of High-Value Vegetable Crops in West Africa Using Host
Resistance for Disease Management.
With her wide professional experience in landscaping and floriculture, she co-ordinated the
Ornamental Research Programme under a national programme dubbed Agricultural
Services Sub-sector Investment Project (AgSSIP),Ghana (2001-2007) under which she and a
team of scientists formulated a soiless medium for the propagation and growing of
houseplants suitable for indoor air cleansing. She further worked with a team of scientists to
undertake national projects such as the construction of the Baba Yara football pitch for CAN
2008. Her passion is to use her knowledge in landfill/landscape remediation to support the
mining and industrial sector re-gain the use of natural land.

2. Dr. Laura Atuah obtained her PhD in Soil Science (Dec 2010) from the University of
Reading, United Kingdom, after obtaining an MPhil in Horticulture (2000) also from the
same University. Her first degree was in Agriculture (1994) from the Kwame Nkrumah
University of Science and Technology, (KNUST) Ghana.
She has reviewed papers for the journal of science and technology (JUST) of KNUST and
that for the Ghana Science Association. She is also a reviewer for the International Society
for Horticultural Science (ISHS)
Contact details: Department of horticulture
KNUST, Kumasi
Email: latuah@gmail.com
Mobile No. +233-269-442-564