AFRICA
Academy sends nine scholars to Nobel Laureate meetings
The African Academy of Sciences, or AAS, has nominated seven African scholars under the age of 35 to participate in this year’s prestigious Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting dedicated to chemistry which takes place later this month. This will be followed in August by the sixth Lindau Meeting on Economic Sciences – at which Africa will be represented by two young economists.The 67th Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting, dedicated to chemistry, which takes place from 25-30 June in the German town of Lindau, brings together the next generation of leading scientists – approximately 400 undergraduates, PhD students and post-doc researchers from 76 countries – to engage in exchange and dialogue with Nobel laureates.
The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings alternate between physiology/medicine, physics and chemistry – the three natural science Nobel Prize disciplines.
According to Dr Tom Kariuki, interim executive director of the AAS, the meetings will involve different sessions designed to activate the exchange of knowledge, ideas and experience among Nobel Laureates and young scientists.
“This will enable the young scholars to have the opportunity to present their own research and discuss it with the laureates. Also, with Nobel Laureates engaging actively in the debates, these panels provide the platform for a profound survey of the state of affairs in challenging fields of research,” he told University World News.
Those selected are among the best in their fields and have the potential to excel in their careers. Kariuki said the AAS expects the experience to promote and nurture the spirit of scientific discovery and technological innovation among African participants in order to promote sustainable development on the continent through capacity building and research.
The African participants include:
- • Ousmane Ilboudo, an assistant professor at Burkina Faso’s University of Ouagadougou;
- • Blaise Kimbadi Lombe, currently a PhD student in natural products chemistry at the University of Wuerzburg, Germany and originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo;
- • Marian Asantewah Nkansah, a senior lecturer in environmental chemistry at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana;
- • Collins Obuah, a lecturer in catalysis and bio-inorganic chemistry at the University of Ghana;
- • John Onyango Adongo, a Kenya-born doctoral candidate at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin in Germany;
- • Nolwazi Nombona, a lecturer in electrochemistry and nanotechnology at South Africa’s University of KwaZulu-Natal;
- • Sarah D'Souza, a Zimbabwe-born nano-chemist and postdoctoral fellow at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa.