Cape Town, South Africa – The African Institute for the Mathematical Sciences Next Einstein Initiative (AIMS-NEI) will be holding their first ever Global Alumni Reunion, titled “Transforming Africa Through Knowledge-Based Enterprise”. This reunion marks the ten-year anniversary of the AIMS Network and will be held from June 27 – 29 at the Muizenberg Pavilion in Cape Town, South Africa.

In the past ten years, AIMS has established itself as one of the world‘s most innovative educational institutions for development-oriented maths and science post-graduate education, having trained over 450 students from 35 African countries, with a network of 3 centres in Ghana, Senegal and South Africa.AIMS graduates have a broad-based training in mathematical sciences and are talented problem solvers and innovators. Gender based stereotypes are being challenged head-on, and AIMS is proud that 30% of students are female. Over 95% of graduates have entered academia, teaching and research careers. Alumni now contribute to technology, disease prevention, and green energy solutions among other fields, and are major contributors to African development.

Ten years after its inception, AIMS is extending its educational gamut by recognizing the essential role which knowledge-based enterprise must play in African development, and is launching new programmes to enable its talented and well-trained African graduates to contribute to higher levels of development based initiatives.

This meeting will bring together over 250 participants comprising leaders from educational systems, research institutes, governments, the scientific community, civil-society organizations and AIMS alumni, to address how Mathematical Sciences education can transform the African Continent. There will be many high profile speakers from Africa, Europe and America., including: Pr. Neil Turok, Director of the Perimeter Institute and the Founder of AIMS, Director of Science and Innovation of the IDRC; and Ingrid Wünning Tschol, Head of the Science Department at the Robert Bosch Stiftung Foundation.

The event is supported by the international Development Research Centre (IDRC), Robert Bosch Stiftung Foundation, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI) and International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP).