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
Three AIMS alumni attended a Singularity University short course at NASA AMES in Silicon Valley from 19 June to the end of August 2010. Mercy Njima (2007-8), Kidist Zeleke (2007-8) and Hind Ahmed (2005-6) were provided with special grants to cover their travel, registration and living costs during the course. Singularity University (SU)is an interdisciplinary
Mountain View, CA, September 24, 2010 – As part of a project to fund world-changing ideas, Google has awarded US$2 million to the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) for its Next Einstein Initiative (NEI), a plan that will accelerate higher education in math and science across Africa. AIMS is one of the winners of Google’s Project 10^100, which
Prime Minister of Canada Announces $20 Million for Building Capacity in Africa During a special visit to Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI) tied to the centre’s Global Outreach activities, the Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper announced new federal funding of $20 CDN million for AIMS and NEI to speed the growth of science and technology capacity in
Africa recognizes that in order to achieve economic and social progress, countries have to put more emphasis on how to use the sciences as a vehicle for development, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA), Dr. Ibrahim Mayaki, said in Midrand today during a meeting with Prof. Neil Turok, Chair of
An article appeared in Banque des Savoirs (French), a website managed by the local governmental council of Essonne, France. Read article in English via Google Translate.
Prof Fritz Hahne was bid a fond farewell by students, alumni and colleagues at a special lunch held at AIMS today. Fritz has led AIMS in the position of Director, since its inception in 2003. He was instrumental in the Institute’s establishment and has overseen the successful graduation of 252 students from the Postgraduate Diploma
Professor Barry Green, the former Head of the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Stellenbosch University, joined AIMS as its new director from 1 April. Barry’s undergraduate and graduate training was at the University of Cape Town, where he completed his PhD in 1984. Following this he was a lecturer in the Stellenbosch Mathematics Department before
A conference is being organized at UNESCO in Paris on 14-15 April 2011 to launch AIMS-Senegal The conference is called “Africa: The choice of Science, the example of the AIMS initiative”and information and registration is available at http://www.scienceafrique.fr/8.html.
It was announced at TED 2010 that Google has donated $1 million to AIMS. This follows AIMS alumni Daphney Singo‘s (pictured below at her AIMS graduation) moving talk about how AIMS is helping her gain her PhD in nuclear physics — a standing-ovation story of one South African woman’s determination to become educated. As her mother told her, “Education is the
English