Crucible

ASSANE GUEYE, a Senegalese-born postdoctoral researcher at America’s National Institute of Standards and Technology, is a student of systems. He studies the multiple networks of communications that hold cities together, and feels that a new scientific discipline is needed to describe these systems of systems. He hopes to create one.

...Next Einstein, the brainchild of Thierry Zomahoun, a Béninois administrator, is an attempt to scale up African science. At the moment, most African scientists work either in isolation or abroad. They do not know one another and are invisible to prospective colleagues. Visas for collaborative work are hard to come by and even flying from one part of Africa to another may require going via a non-African hub, such as Dubai. Next Einstein is an attempt to overcome this fragmentation, by providing a continental congress at which African scientists can meet.

Read full article: Crucible, 12 March, 2016