Африкалық математикалық ғылымдар институты және «Келесі Эйнштейн» бастамасы

Tertiary education and research institute in South Africa

The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) is a tertiary education and research institute in Muizenberg, South Africa, established in September 2003, and an associated network of linked institutes in Senegal, Ghana, Cameroon and Rwanda.

The first African Institute for Mathematical Sciences was founded in Muizenberg near Cape Town by Neil Turok in 2003, while he was Chair of Mathematical Physics at Cambridge University. Neil Turok is the son of Ben Turok, an ANC MP. In 2008 Turok became Executive Director of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and was replaced by Dr Robert Myers in 2019. AIMS South Africa was formed as a partnership between the following universities: University of Stellenbosch, University of Cambridge, University of Cape Town, University of Oxford, University of Paris Sud, and University of the Western Cape.

AIMS was the subject of a talk by Neil Turok after he received the TED Prize in 2008. Neil Turok's TED wish was that, within his lifetime, an African Einstein would be celebrated. The AIMS Next Einstein Initiative is a plan to create 15 more AIMS centres across Africa. These centres intend to create institutions that are equipped with educational and scientific resources equivalent to the more developed continents, in order to fulfil Neil Turok's TED wish. The first three centres created after that in South Africa are in Senegal, Ghana and Cameroon. AIMS Senegal became operational in September, 2011 in Mbour, near Dakar, and AIMS Ghana opened its doors in 2012 in the small coastal city of Biriwa. An earlier centre based at the African University of Science and Technology (AUST) in Nigeria was known as AIMS Abuja for a while. AIMS Ghana was set up in 2012, AIMS Cameroon in 2013 and AIMS Tanzania in 2014. There is a sixth centre in Rwanda. The AIMS Next Einstein Initiative is a continuation of the work of the African Mathematical Institutes Network (AMI Net). After AIMS South Africa won the TED Prize in 2008, Neil Turok and his partners developed the AIMS Next Einstein Initiative, the goal of which is to build 15 centres of excellence across Africa by 2023. The Government of Canada made a US$20 million investment in the Next Einstein Initiative in 2010, through its International Development Research Centre, and numerous governments in Africa and Europe have followed suit. In October 2015, a forum took place in Dakar under the auspices of UNESCO's International Basic Sciences Programme to take the project for a vast network of centres to the next stage.

The AIMS institutes teach both basic and applied mathematics, covering a large range of mathematical applications in physics (including astrophysics and cosmology), quantitative biology, bioinformatics, scientific computing, finance, agriculture modelling and so on. That in Senegal proposes courses in both French and English. The centre specialises in Mathematical Biology, Industrial Mathematics, Mathematical Finance, Astrophysics & Cosmology, and Computer Algebra. Bursaries are offered for Master's and doctoral studies.

AIMS South Africa hosts a School Enrichment Centre which offers free learning resources and professional development courses for South African mathematics teachers.

AIMS South Africa regularly hosts short conferences or workshops in mathematics and its applications, especially in physics, mathematical finance, epidemiology. Other topics include scientific modelling or system administration using Debian GNU/Linux as a platform.

Regular public lectures on a wide range of topics are offered by eminent scientists at the forefront of research in their field.

AIMS South Africa is sponsored by international corporations, international development organisations and the South African departments of Education and Science and Technology. In February 2010 Google donated $1 million to AIMS. In July 2010, Canada committed CAN$20 million of federal funding to AIMS and the AIMS Next Einstein Initiative. The funds are administered by the International Development Research Centre and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. In September 2010 the AIMS Next Einstein Initiative AIMS NEI was awarded US$2 million from Google's Project 10^100. Individuals donate to AIMS on GivenGain.

AIMS Ghana is among the oldest AIMS centers. Located in West Africa, initially based within the University of Ghana in East Legon, then based in the idyllic village of Biriwa in the Central Region, and then moved to Accra. The center has been highly patronized by the figure of Francis Allotey. After his demise, the center has been organizing summer camps to outreach recently graduated students and motivate them about math, those summer camps are currently named as Allotey Math Summer Camp after him A new program to support female students in STEM has also been launched.

Since 2014, AIMS Ghana started conducting research on topics related to applied mathematics and epidemiology. Among the published works, there are the project of Dr. Olivier Menoukeu Pamen (Alexander Humboldt Chair in Ghana) about Stochastic Mortality Modelling for Dependent Coupled Lives, Dr. Alessandro Crimi about epidemiological study on prenatal care, and during the COVID 19 pandemic Esther Opoku Gyasi and Prof. Francis Oduro about cost effectiveness analysis of COVID 19 data from Ghana.