The 2010 AIMS Next Einstein Initiative (AIMS-NEI) Planning Meeting was  held at AIMS-South Africa from 13-15 October. This meeting saw representatives from existing and proposed AIMS centres in Ghana, Senegal, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Botswana come together with members of the AIMS-NEI Board and other supporters. This group of senior academics from across the continent (and the world) worked on finalization of the AIMS-NEI business plan which will guide the development of new AIMS centres across the continent, beginning with Senegal in 2011 and Ghana in 2012.

Together with this meeting, a special event was held with representatives of international and South African governments taking part in a discussion on mathematics and science in Africa. The programme featured speeches from AIMS alumni Yves Semegni (on how AIMS enabled his career), IDRC representative Naser Faruqui (on why Canada supports AIMS), NEPAD representative Philippe Mawoko (on NEPAD’s support for AIMS) and Neil Turok (on the AIMS-NEI plan). Dr. Turok then led a panel discussion of leading scientists, with the event culminating in a keynote address from Dr Molapo of the South African Department of Science and Technology.

Dr Molapo