Patricia Oteng-Darko grew up in Kumasi, Ghana’s second-largest city, in a family of three girls—one of whom is her twin. The wife and mother of three did her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees at KNUST. “Growing up, I always wanted to be in either academia or research,” she says. She did well in math and physics, and sought guidance from a high school teacher as to what to study. “When I started my BSc, I opted for agricultural engineering—I had failed miserably at biology,” she laughs. She was the first woman to complete a PhD in Soil and Water Engineering at KNUST.