Lack of labs fuels Africa’s brain drain in quantum physics

Many of Africa’s brightest young quantum physicists are lured by better opportunities at universities abroad – and often never return. This hampers efforts to develop the field and build teaching and research capacity across the continent.

A lack of funding – which prevents experimental work – combined with insufficient quantum teachers, heavy teaching workloads, limited faculty posts, and nepotism at some African universities, are all contributing to the brain drain.

However, ‘grand challenges’ – such as opportunities to work on groundbreaking projects in Africa – together with student and teacher exchange programmes, could help stem the outflow and even bring back doctoral and post-doctoral researchers.

These were a few of the views that emerged at the Quantum Science and Technology Across Africa workshop in Scottburgh, South Africa, recently.

The workshop, which brought together delegates from a host of African countries, many for the first time, heard from speaker after speaker how a lack of laboratory resources and experienced experimentalists and teachers limited hands-on quantum research at African universities.

Opportunity for experimentation

Experimentation was seen as vital, as it allows the testing of theory while also suggesting new avenues for theoretical research. It was a point made by Stellenbosch University, South Africa’s, Dr Christine Steenkamp at the conclusion of a presentation she gave entitled, ‘Experimental Quantum Science Using Cold Atoms and Ions in South Africa’.

“The experimental perspective and considerations can provide an edge to theoretical research in this field,” she said, stressing the importance of collaboration.

Speaking at a workshop round-table meeting, Dr Happy Sithole said Africa needed a “grand challenge” that would inspire scientists, “otherwise, we will not attract young people”. Sithole, centre manager of South Africa’s National Integrated Cyber Infrastructure System, told how initiatives like the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope had attracted skilled people back to Africa.

Sithole and other speakers called for more partnerships and exchange programmes with universities and institutes in developed countries, geared at encouraging promising African post-graduates to ultimately work in Africa.

The good news, said Dr Andreas Buchleitner, of the University of Freiburg, was that institutes in Germany have, over the past decade or so, grown more receptive to such exchanges and to supporting capacity-building in Africa.

The reasons for this were complicated and intertwined. Immigration, a hot-button topic in Europe, was a factor, as was competition between the West and China for resources.

These political and geopolitical considerations had some bearing on funding and academia and were amplified by support, particularly in the social sciences, for the “woke agenda”. Global competition for young talent played a part too: “The feeling is that, in an internationally ever more tense political situation, scholarly associations and institutions need to strengthen their international relations,” said Buchleitner.

The workshop heard how young physics graduates in Africa were expected to shoulder a heavy teaching burden, leaving them with little time or energy to do their own research. This made them more likely to seek opportunities abroad – assuming they even returned to the continent from study and work stints in the Northern Hemisphere.

A disservice

Dr Prince Osei, Ghana centre head of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, warned that pushing young graduates into teaching roles too early did both them and their universities a disservice. He explained that inexperienced teachers often lacked the maturity and broad perspective gained from research experience to be truly effective educators or independent researchers.

“Having time to do research was transformative for my own career. It’s important we find a way to address this,” said Osei, whose institute is involved in initiatives across the continent to train post-graduates in the mathematical sciences, roping in top volunteer teachers from abroad and facilitating exchanges.

He said that, in some African countries, including Cameroon, Togo and Benin, physics graduates were not returning from overseas study and research stints. He felt this was partly due to a lack of positions or opportunities at faculties in their home countries.

“There are certain mafias in the academic space who are afraid of young physics researchers. They think: ‘This guy thinks he knows too much’.”

Dr Henry Martin, of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana, spoke of his own experience as a young physicist and how a period abroad prepared and motivated him to return to Africa to teach.

Martin said his institution was short on resources and funds, “but we have good students”.

To capitalise on this and to stem the brain drain, the university has been running a mathematical and computational physics double-masters programme since 2021.

Students, recruited from physics, maths, computer science and engineering, spend their first year at Italy’s University of L’Aquila and their second year at other partner institutions in Europe and Canada. Martin said this let students progress in their careers, with many returning to assume faculty positions in Ghana. He said it was about building a foundation for a PhD exchange programme in Ghana.

He was “surprised and depressed” when he realised that South Africa had been doing research in quantum technology for many years but had yet to establish collaborations or partnerships with West Africa.

North Africans reported progress with masters level quantum programmes. Dr Ahmed Younes, of Egypt’s Alexandria University, shared details of a masters programme in quantum computing and quantum informatics offered by the university, as well as a masters programme in quantum science and technology to be offered by Alamein International University.

Brain gain

Dr Abderrahim El Allati, of Abdelmalek Essaadi University, Morocco, warned that Africa was in danger of missing out on a global quantum revolution, deepening dependency on foreign technology suppliers and missing out on job opportunities. But, he said, Morocco was making efforts to “turn the brain drain into a brain gain”. This included the 2021-22 launch of a masters programme in quantum information: modelling and applications.

He is now developing a masters programme in experimental quantum physics. It would combine theory with hands-on, laboratory work including optics, cryogenics (low-temperature physics) and quantum key distributions (using quantum mechanics to generate theoretically unbreakable encryption). This would prepare students for PhDs.

The two-year course would include industry or lab experience and would be open to students from other African countries with courses in English. But, to make the project fly, El Allati appealed to his colleagues to guide and assist with the design of lab modules by hosting students or exchanges and internships, and by donating equipment.