More Student Talks from the Launch of NextEinstein

More Student Talks from the Launch of NextEinstein

On May 12, the NextEinstein initiative launched with an event focused on the voices of students of AIMS. The talks from that day will be made publicly available over the next months. These are the future Einsteins of Africa and the world. Watch more amazing stories on YouTube.

Senegal to become part of ambitious maths network
Fernand Tona
10 August 2009 | EN | FR

Flickr/akirsa
[DAKAR] Plans are well underway to create an African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Senegal, according to the project's coordinator.

Mamadou Sangharé, of the department of mathematics and information technology at Cheikh Anta Diop University in the capital Dakar, says AIMS-Senegal is likely to be established in Mbour, a town of about 180,000 inhabitants 80 kilometres south of Dakar.

He says the plans are progressing "very well", largely due to support from the country's political leaders, particularly Senegal's president, Abdoulaye Wade. Wade is providing the site for the centre.

AIMS-Senegal is part of the AIMS Next Einstein Initiative (AIMS-NEI), which aims to establish 15 centres across the continent over the next decade.

Marie-Pierre Barre, project developer of AIMS-NEI, told SciDev.Net that AIMS-Senegal is one of three new AIMS centres to be created in the next few years with similar projects underway in Ethiopia and Ghana.

AIMS has an existing campus in South Africa and a cooperation agreement with the African University of Science and Technology in Nigeria.

The new centre may be built in collaboration with France's Institute for Development Research (IRD) which already owns an experimental ecology reserve outside Mbour.

AIMS-NEI aspires to do more than simply boost mathematical and scientific skills in Africa, says Barre. "It's about connecting universities with the AIMS centre network, and Africa with science worldwide," she says.

Construction is due to start next year. If work is completed to schedule, AIMS-Senegal will be open for business in 2011, admitting 50 students in its first year. It will offer a postgraduate mathematics diploma in both French and English. Graduates will be eligible to enrol onto Masters and PhD courses.

The establishment of AIMS-Senegal is being funded by AIMS-NEI together with the Association for the Scientific Promotion of Africa (APSA), created by French theoretical physicist, Vincent Rivasseau, co-founder of the AIMS-Senegal project. The hope is that other sources, including the Senegalese government, will eventually take over funding.

Sangharé says the objective of AIMS-Senegal is both to train Africans within Africa in mathematical sciences and to help them to work in situ towards the development of the continent.

It is expected that AIMS-Senegal will eventually train over 300 Africans annually at relatively low cost. Most students are likely to come from neighbouring countries — namely Gambia, Mali, Guinea-Bissau and Guinea, says Sangharé.

"One of the strengths of the [AIMS] educational model is the pan-African nature of its recruitment," says Sangharé.


Africa’s shortage of skilled scientists and mathematicians is limiting the continent’s potential to lift itself out of poverty, suggests Neil Turok, Director of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.

It’s not that Africa does not produce gifted students, he stated during a public presentation at IDRC on June 26, but that these students often don’t have the ways and means to further their education and their skills.

“Africa is a continent with enormous potential,” said Turok. “[It’s tragic] that people with incredible capabilities and potential are denied the opportunity to develop themselves and to develop their own countries.”

To address the need to build advanced math and science skills, Turok helped found the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in 2003. Since its founding, more than 200 students, men and women from 30 African countries, have participated in the institute’s programs; many have gone on to successful scientific and technical careers in Africa or are pursuing master's or doctoral programs.

AIMS is now launching the Next Einstein Initiative to nurture scientific talent in Africa. The goal is to establish 15 AIMS centres across the continent in the next decade.


Left to right: Tobie de Coning, John Mugabe, Rohinton Medhora (IDRC Vice President, Programs), and Neil Turok

Turok was joined at IDRC by John Mugabe, former Executive Director of the African Centre for Technology Studies and the interim Director of the Next Einstein Initiative, and Tobie de Coning, Chief Director of Strategic Initiatives and Human Resources at the Stellenbosch University, who was representing the Vice President of the Association of African Universities, Russel Botman.

Visit the AIMS website http://www.aims.ac.za/