Famous physicist launches search for Africa's Einsteins

by Rich Bowden - May 11 2008, 21:08

Physicist Stephen Hawking has called for Africa's brilliant minds to be given better opportunities in a lecture delivered in Cape Town, South Africa on Sunday.

Famous physicist Stephen Hawking has lent his support to a scheme to search for "African Einsteins". Photo: Stephen Hawking. Credit: NASA

Despite being crippled by motor neurone disease, Hawking travelled to South Africa to help launch a $146 million plan to create Africa’s first postgraduate centres for advanced maths and physics.Speaking at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), the 66-year-old wheelchair bound physicist said he supported the Institute's search for an "African Einstein"."The world of science needs Africa's brilliant talents, and I look forward to meeting prospective young Einsteins from Africa in the near future. If my visit helps to create opportunities for Africans to enter maths and science, I will be delighted," he said.AIMS was founded by physicist and education activist Neil Turok, professor of mathematical physics at Cambridge University, who has worked with Hawking on theories about the origins of the universe. The Institute's goals are threefold; to promote mathematics and science in Africa; to recruit and train talented students and teachers and to build capacity for African initiatives in education, research, and technology, according to its website.Prof. Turok said at the Cape Town conference, "As well as an African Einstein, we want to see the African Gates, Brins and Pages of the future," referring to the founders of Microsoft and Google.The AIMS programme has been highly successful since its inception four years ago, producing 160 graduates from 30 African countries, many of whom have gone on to take distinguished science doctorates.Other highly-respected scientists who attended the event included two Nobel Prize Laureates in Physics, David Gross and George Smoot, and the head of NASA, Michael Griffin.

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Famous physicist launches search for Africa's Einsteins

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