A special tribute to Stephen Mecca, Co-Founder of GSAP
Dr. Stephen Mecca was been a Professor in the Department of Engineering-Physics-Systems at Providence College for nearly 50 years. He served as a Visiting Scholar at the University of Ghana and a Trustee of Radford University in Ghana. He held a doctorate in Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and served as a consultant to government, industry and the private sector, in addition to working on projects for NATO, the US Department of Energy and NASA.
In addition to teaching, Mecca directed research in the S-Lab focusing on: environmental engineering, water resource management, and rural sanitation and education. He authored and coauthored numerous articles and three books in the fields of Systems Analysis, Energy Management and Computer Science. In the last dozen or so years of his life, his lab developed an off-grid sustainable toilet system for rural communities in the developing world, and worked under a Grand Challenges Award from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through the Global Sustainable Aid Project.
Steve passed away in 2018 and is greatly respected and missed. GSAP staff and directors continue to be inspired by his work and carry on his legacy.
GSAP was originally called the Ghana Literacy Project, and focused on education. In 2010, Ghana Literacy Project was renamed the Ghana Sustainable Aid Project (GSAP), and expanded its mission to be able to work on projects with longer-lasting and economically sustainable potential.
By 2013, one of GSAP’s projects had grown above the others — the GSAP toilets — and led to GSAP becoming an international organization. GSAP now stands for Global Sustainable Aid Project.
