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News from ICTP 115 - Features - Mori Fellowships
A fellowship programme, funded by the Japanese government and organised by ICTP, will enable African students to study abroad yet remain affiliated with institutions in their home countries.
Lifting Science and Math
in Africa
As endless reports have shown,
a large number of native-born Africans with advanced degrees in
mathematics and science have abandoned their homeland to pursue
their careers elsewhere. Equally disturbing, only a small percentage
of students in Africa over the past several decades have sought
advanced degrees in mathematics and science in the first place.
"No one doubts that there's a crisis," says K.R. Sreenivasan,
ICTP director. "In fact, analysts have been lamenting the
chronic shortfalls of well-trained professors and talented students
in science and mathematics in Africa for some time. I just completed
an informal survey of African scientists and everyone I spoke
to put this problem at the top of the list of their concerns."
"The critical question," adds Sreenivasan, "is
not what's happening---that's painfully obvious---but what to
do about it. That's why we are so pleased to have received generous
funding from Japan's Fund in Trust (JFIT) to launch the Mori Fellowship
programme for young scientists and mathematicians from sub-Saharan
Africa." The initiative is named after Yoshiro Mori, a former
prime minister of Japan who has been a tireless proponent of international
cooperation and assistance.
Specifically, the Mori Fellowship programme will provide 10 fellowships
each year over a three-year period to qualified students in a
broad range of fields in mathematics and physics. Its ultimate
goal is to strengthen the human capacity of sub-Saharan Africa
by offering high-level educational and research opportunities
to students pursuing advanced doctorate and post-doctorate degrees
in areas such as condensed matter physics, the physics of weather
and climate, fluid dynamics, oceanography and seismology, as well
as in pure and applied mathematics.
"The Mori Fellowship programme," says Noureini Tidjani-Serpos,
UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Africa, "adds a strong
science education component to JFIT's other human capacity initiatives
which include, for instance, audiovisual media training in Kenya,
information and communication technology capacity building for
journalists in Ghana, and a feasibility study for the creation
of a virtual library in Nigeria." Approximately US$440,000
has been allocated for the three-year programme which, if proven
successful, may be renewed.
"During the 1970s," says Gallieno Denardo, special advisor
to the ICTP director and the past head of the Centre's Office
of External Activities (OEA), "sub-Saharan Africa had some
of the finest institutions of higher education in the developing
world, including Dar-Es-Salaam in Tanzania, Ibadan in Nigeria,
Khartoum in Sudan, and Makerere in Uganda."
"Decades of neglect, political uncertainty and violence,"
Denardo laments, "have left these institutions in a poor
state and forced a large number of the region's most able mathematicians
and scientists to pursue their careers elsewhere."
The problem, as many observers see it, is that professors have
been unable to engage in the kind of research and teaching that
their colleagues in many other parts of the world take for granted.
Meanwhile, students have been unable to enrol in courses or conduct
laboratory experiments that would allow them to gain the knowledge
and skills they need to become successful mathematicians and scientists.
"Studies," adds Denardo, "show that when a mathematician
or scientist from a developing country, particularly a least developed
country (LDC), stays away from his or her country for several
years, he or she is unlikely ever to return on a permanent basis."
To stem this chronic brain drain phenomenon, institutions, including
ICTP, have turned to a strategy that requires students to remain
enrolled in universities in their home countries while still enjoying
access to state-of-the-art science facilities and people elsewhere.
"The strategy we have adopted for the Mori Fellowship programme,"
says Sreenivasan, "works like this: Participants matriculate
in institutions in their home countries but can visit ICTP---and
other scientific institutions in Trieste---for extended periods
over three successive years to participate in research and training
activities and engage in discussions with eminent scientists.
In fact, all students will be assigned two supervisors-one from
their home country and another from a Trieste-based scientific
institution."
"Beyond the immediate benefits it provides to participating
students," Sreenivasan continues, "we anticipate that
the programme will have a substantial 'multiplying' effect as
those who earn their degrees assume teaching responsibilities
in their home countries. Over time, more and more young African
students interested in science and mathematics will benefit."
ICTP is no stranger to such a strategy, which is often called
a "sandwich" programme. Charles Chidume, a staff member
of ICTP's mathematics group, launched a Centre-supported "sandwich
programme in mathematics" at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
The programme has since provided support to 10 students, who have
spent roughly half of their time in their home institutions and
half at ICTP.
Similarly, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna
joined ICTP in launching an ICTP/IAEA Sandwich Training and Educational
Programme (STEP) in 2004 to provide research and training opportunities
in a wide variety of fields in physics and mathematics to students
from developing countries. Under the STEP programme, students
spend part of their time at home and part of their time in institutions
in Italy. At present, approximately 50 STEP students are enrolled
(see "Step by Step,"
News from ICTP, Spring 2004, pp. 4-5).
"The experience ICTP has acquired through its 'sandwich'
programmes over the past several years," says Chidume, "has
enabled us to rapidly implement the Mori Fellowship programme."
Ali Bashir, who is a lecturer in mathematics at Bayero University
in Kano, Nigeria, the same place where he received his master's
degree, arrived in Trieste in early February. His area of specialty
is functional and nonlinear analysis. He hopes that his three
extended visits to ICTP over the next three years-each for about
six months-will enable him to obtain his Ph.D degree from the
University of Nigeria, Nsukka, by 2008.
Other students, all seeking advanced degrees, will soon follow:
-- Paulina Ekua Amponsah, a lecturer at the Department of Geology,
University of Ghana, Legon, and principal seismologist at Ghana's
Geological Survey Department, Accra, who examines earthquake hazards
and mitigation strategies in Africa by developing ground motion
simulation models that help to determine potential seismological
behaviour on the continent.
-- Oluwayomi Peace Faromika, an assistant lecturer at the Federal
University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria, who specialises in fluid
dynamics and, more specifically, the development of mathematical
models and computational simulations as tools for blood flow analysis.
-- Brice Rodrigue Malonda Boungou, who was born and raised in
Congo and is currently studying for his Ph.D at the University
of Douala's Centre for Atomic Molecular Physics and Quantum Optics
(CEPAMOQ), in Cameroon. Malonda Boungou's research focusses on
condensed matter physics and, more specifically, the electronic
and magnetic properties of nanostructures.
-- Uguette Flore Ndongmouo Taffoti, who obtained her Ph.D in November
2005 from the Institute of Mathematics and Physical Sciences in
Porto-Novo, Benin, and who focusses her studies on molecular dynamics,
particularly as it relates to water absorption of icy surfaces.
-- Folsade Mayowa Olajuyigbe, an assistant lecturer at the Federal
University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria, who applies laser technology
to biological studies, especially for better understanding the
enzyme structure, function and dynamics of soil-bound micro-organisms.
-- Mohammed Khalil Salih Saeed, a medical physicist at the Radiation
and Isotopes Center in Khartoum, Sudan, who examines dosage levels
and improved quality control mechanisms for radiotherapy in order
to better protect both patients and medical personnel.
-- Abdulrafiu Tunde Raji, who was born in Nigeria and is now an
instructor at University of Cape Town, South Africa. Raji specialises
in solid state physics and, more specifically, develops computer
simulations to study the ways in which stress, temperature and
pressure effect materials and particularly metals.
When Koïchiro Matsuura, director general of UNESCO, who proved
instrumental in arranging this grant, announced the launch of
the Mori Fellowship programme during a ceremony celebrating Africa
Week at UNESCO's headquarters in Paris last May, he noted that
Africa is a continent that has enormous scientific talent. Yet,
inadequate educational opportunities and the lack of scientific
exchange-both within Africa and between Africa and scientific
communities abroad-have created serious impediments to nurturing
this talent.
The Mori Fellowship programme is designed to overcome these impediments
by helping the continent's 'best and brightest' young scientists
and mathematicians reach their full potential without having to
leave for far-away places from which they may never return.