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News from ICTP 106 - What's New
The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) will seek to reverse Africa's brain drain problem.
Aiming Higher
When ICTP director K.R. Sreenivasan
travelled to South Africa to participate in a roundtable discussion
at the inaugural ceremony of the African Institute for Mathematical
Sciences (AIMS) on 18 September, he felt right at home.
AIMS, the brainchild of Neil Turok, a world-renowned cosmologist
at the University of Cambridge, UK, will seek to stem Africa's
chronic brain drain in mathematics by establishing a pan-African
centre of excellence dedicated to the advanced training of the
continent's most outstanding young mathematicians.
The centrepiece of the effort is a one-year postgraduate diploma
programme in mathematical sciences modelled after ICTP's own Diploma
Programme, which recently celebrated its 12th anniversary.
The AIMS diploma programme works like this: Students who have
earned high marks as undergraduates are selected on a competitive
basis to attend a one-year advanced training programme focussing
on the mathematical aspects of a wide variety of subjects that
includes astrophysics, bioinformatics, computational science,
demographics, ecology and economics.
Upon successful completion of the course, students will receive
credit from one of three degree-granting South African universities
now associated with the initiative: the universities of Western
Cape, Cape Town and Stellenbosch that are working jointly with
Cambridge University in the United Kingdom in the organisation
of this effort.
In addition to drawing on the faculty of all these institutions
for its instruction, AIMS has also received commitments from more
than 100 academics from around the world who will serve as guest
lecturers at the institute. Among those who have volunteered their
services is George Ellis, professor of cosmology at the University
of Cape Town and a former collaborator with ICTP's High Energy
Physics Group.
The institute, located in Muizenberg, a small seaside suburb of
Cape Town, was launched with the help of a US$120,000 grant from
the International Council of Science (ICSU). In addition, more
than US$500,000 in donations from South Africa's government and
several foundations and private firms, including the international
communications company Vodafone, have been granted to cover the
institute's annual operating expenses.
The first class of AIMS students has just begun their studies.
A group of 30 students, coming from 15 African nations, has been
chosen from a candidate pool of 85.
"The goal of AIMS is to build capacity in African mathematics
and science," Turok says. "By recruiting bright young
students and teaching them well in an institute that focusses
on Africa and African development, we hope to encourage them to
pursue their careers in Africa."
"The ICTP Diploma Programme," adds Sreenivasan, "has
earned an excellent reputation for serving as a training ground
for the developing world's brightest students in high energy and
condensed matter physics, as well as in mathematics--especially
students from the world's least developed countries."
"ICTP," he adds, "is indeed delighted to have served
as a model for AIMS and we warmly welcome the institute's efforts
to provide training to develop a critical mass of skilled mathematicians
in Africa."
"While it is clear that the continent as a whole needs a
larger scale effort," Sreenivasan notes, "it is also
clear that any good effort is worthwhile. The larger the number
of efforts like AIMS, the greater the impact on African mathematics.
ICTP is pleased to show its support for AIMS and wishes the endeavour
great success."