African Institute for Mathematical Sciences

The revival of science in Africa has been made firm since the year 2003. This brainchild belongs to Prof. Neil Turok who is a Cosmologist. The institution called AIMS is situated in Muizenberg, South Africa in a renovated hotel and the students learn and live at this building. They stay there for the duration of the course which is nine month. Since the running of the institution, over 200 students have graduated from AIMS. The attention is given to graduates who have a back-round in all the disciplines of science from all over Africa. Securing admission is not easy since an applicant must show interest and also results must speak for themselves.

AIMS acknowledge the realities of a multilingual society and a multilingual environment. The institution subscribes to an accommodative multilingual framework according to which functional multilingualism is implemented. What goes on inside the building is solidarity, brotherhood and sisterhood, ask me I know all about it; a new community, a new family. There is no university in the world where you can find people of different cultures and color, living, sharing and studying together like at this institution. The director, Prof. Hahne said most of the students see studying at AIMS as an opportunity of a lifetime and they give it all they got, I just can’t dispute that.

Lectures are given by cutting edge lecturers all over the world for the whole of seven months and the last two students do write an essay on a topic of their interest. The course is structured such that each student tend to do a different course which they might have taken at the university or never before in order to ensure that after finishing with the course they are able to correspond to other scientist in different fields. The approach is also slightly different from the university where the student comes from because mathematics is no longer a pen and paper when studying at AIMS, rather students uses computers also. Unfortunately, I chose to go the marketing route.

This institution is well represented by its alumni all over the world (including me of course) and this is leading to other projects like this one to develop in Africa, the project is called AMINet, you must check it out. Running the institution is not easy even though if a student is given admission you have secured a scholarship that covers everything a student need, thanks to the sponsors and also the South African government which has been sponsoring AIMS. I had a privilege of meeting the minister of education, Naledi Pandor to name few. I made friends all over Africa and I feel like an African because I can go to any country in our continent and I can assure you I will never sleep on the street. One of my favorite lecturers was Liz Moyer, I have never meet someone who is so energetic and willing to take time of her busy schedule and come down to Africa to share the knowledge she has.

If you want to read and learn more about this amazing place, we you can go ahead.