Empowering the next generation of scientists in Africa

Empowering the next generation of scientists in Africa

No one is born a world-class scientist. Instead, their skills are built over many years of education, networking, mentorship, and work in laboratories or in the field.

That’s the fundamental insight behind the not-for-profit organization Future African Scientist, which is seeking to unleash the scientific potential of the continent by providing African students and early-career scientists with the support they need to do world-renowned research that addresses problems in their local communities and beyond.

Future African Scientist, or FAS, partners with leading scientists and institutions around the world, including MIT, to offer educational courses, training, networking events, and other programming around scientific research and entrepreneurship. More importantly, graduates of FAS programs join a network of scientists that helps them match with jobs, internships, and further learning opportunities.

“Our programs aim to democratize access to science education and create a new wave of scientists that are going to study African problems and not just publish papers, but also translate that research into beneficial products as well as policies,” says FAS co-founder Martin Lubowa.

At the core of FAS is a belief in the power of connections to further scientific understanding. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that FAS began with a connection between two people from very different walks of life during an MIT program.

From roommates to co-founders

In 2020, Daniel Zhang ’22 participated in Biology Professor Bruce Walker’s course HST. 434 (Evolution of an Epidemic) as part of a MISTI Global Classroom during MIT’s Independent Activities Period (IAP). The course immerses students in a South African community to teach them about the AIDS epidemic from the perspective of doctors, researchers, policymakers, and local infected women.

That IAP happened to be the first year the class paired MIT students with students from the African Leadership Academy, which seeks to build leadership skills in African youth. Zhang’s roommate was Martin Lubowa.

“Martin and I bonded instantly despite coming from completely different cultures and backgrounds,” Zhang recalls. “We shared passions for education, mentorship, and sports.”

Despite waking up early each day for class, Zhang and Lubowa talked late into the nights. Many of their conversations centered around the differences in STEM opportunities between students in the U.S. and African countries. They also discussed the importance of STEM in economic development and eventually identified a lack of mentorship programs as a key problem. They decided to found Future African Scientist to close those gaps.

With support and encouragement from Walker, the pair kept in touch after the class and focused their mission to equipping university and high school students in Africa with early-stage mentorship and critical thinking skills that would enable them to conduct independent research projects.

In January 2022, they organized their first virtual bootcamp for students across Africa. The bootcamp featured virtual courses, lectures by leading African scientists, mentorship opportunities, and a capstone project that challenged students to apply their learnings.

“We didn’t want to just give them research skills, but also entrepreneurship skills and interpersonal skills to position them as scientific entrepreneurs,” Lubowa says.

After receiving positive feedback and learning more about the skills students needed, the founders broadened the structure of FAS.

Today, a similar bootcamp on foundational research skills serves as the first stage of FAS’s four-part Africa Science Research Academy. The second stage is a data-driven research project that exposes participants to working in a lab. The third stage teaches skills including entrepreneurship, leadership, financial literacy, and grant management. The final stage, the Africa Science Opportunity Network, is available to FAS graduates for life and is designed to connect participants with internships, jobs opportunities, and other research projects.

“What makes us different from most of the research training programs in Africa is that we are open to anyone who is curious,” Lubowa says. “Most of the programs on the continent target MDs who already practicing, or PhDs, which is a bit unfair for people who are curious, but they don’t have the right platform to channel that curiosity into meaningful experiences.”

To date, more than 100 students and young professionals have gone through FAS programming. The students hail from more than 30 universities and 15 countries. FAS has also partnered with 10 medical student associations that have helped it expand its network to more than 100,000 students across the continent. FAS is also in conversations with organizations like the African Microscope Initiative, which has offered to recruit FAS graduates for more specialized training in bioimaging, as well as African state governments to create upskilling programs that could serve as alternatives to MD and PhD programs.

“We see Africa transitioning from just being a beneficiary of the global scientific community to becoming a contributor,” Lubowa says. “That means we can help the U.S. and other Western countries solve their problems. The issue at the moment is getting people the skills they need and changing their mindset so they understand they can do great things, and that in the long run, they can not just generate knowledge, but also create enterprises that address some of these challenges within Africa and beyond.”

Meeting the needs of the continent

In 2022, a pair of students from the Association of Mbarara University Pharmaceutical Sciences in Uganda learned about the foundations of entrepreneurship through FAS’ programming. They are in the process of commercializing their research into mosquito repellants made from locally-sourced materials. That same year, an undergraduate Cameroonian alumna of FAS placed third in a national science competition despite going up against PhDs. His research was in early detection of pancreatic cancer.

“One of the aspirational goals of Future African Scientists is to cultivate a sustainable scientific ecosystem where beyond academia, there’s also a science industry in Africa,” Lubowa says.

Further down the line, FAS would like to open its own laboratories to broaden access to equipment, and FAS’s team has already spoken with companies that exchange second-hand medical and laboratory equipment to help improve scientific infrastructure at African institutes.

“Our long-term plans include establishing general-purpose, open laboratories where students across Africa can go and learn how to do practical science,” Lubowa says.

With all work, FAS seeks to empower Africans to become a global scientific force for good.

“We have a population of 1.2 billion people in Africa, but we only have 198 scientists per million people. The U.S. has more than 4,000 scientists per million people,” Lubowa says. “Africans also have the highest burden of disease, so there’s really a need for us to rethink how we have been training scientists, and it all goes back to these support systems. I really think we can change the scientific landscape in Africa.”

A preview of the upcoming Black Hat conference… – CyberTalk

A preview of the upcoming Black Hat conference… – CyberTalk

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

One of the leading cyber security conferences globally, Black Hat USA is where intellect meets innovation. The 2024 event is taking place from August 3rd – 8th, at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas.

The conference is highly regarded for its emphasis on cutting-edge cyber security research, high-caliber presentations, skill development workshops, peer networking opportunities, and for its Business Hall, which showcases innovative cyber security solutions.

Although two other cyber security conferences in Las Vegas will compete for attention next week, Black Hat is widely considered the main draw. Last year, Black Hat USA hosted roughly 20,000 in-person attendees from 127 different countries.

Event information

The Black Hat audience typically includes a mix of cyber security researchers, ethical hackers, cyber security professionals – from system administrators to CISOs – business development professionals, and government security experts.

On the main stage this year, featured speakers include Ann Johnson, the Corporate Vice President and Deputy CISO of Microsoft, Jen Easterly, Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and Harry Coker Jr., National Cyber Director for the United States Executive Office of the President.

The Black Hat CISO Summit, on Monday, August 5th through Tuesday, August 6th, caters to the needs and interests of CISOs and security executives. This track will address topics ranging from the quantification of cyber risk costs, to supply chain security, to cyber crisis management.

Professionals who are certified through ISC2 can earn 5.5 Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits for CISO Summit attendance.

Why else Black Hat

  • Access to thousands of industry professionals who have similar interests, who can discuss challenges and who can provide new product insights.
  • Access to the latest cyber research, which may not yet be widely available, helping your organization prevent potential attacks before they transform into fast-moving, large-scale issues.
  • Cyber security strategy development in partnership with experts and vendors.
    • Check Point is offering exclusive 1:1 meetings with the company’s cyber security executives. If you plan to attend the event and would like to book a meeting with a Check Point executive, please click here.
  • Community building. Connect with others, collaborate on initiatives and strengthen everyone’s cyber security in the process.

Must-see sessions

If you’re attending the event, plan ahead to make the most of your time. There’s so much to see and do. Looking for a short-list of must-see speaking sessions? Here are a handful of expert-led and highly recommended talks:

  • Enhancing Cloud Security: Preventing Zero-Day Attacks with Modernized WAPs: Wednesday, August 7th, at 11:00am, booth #2936
  • How to Train your AI Co-Pilot: Wednesday, August 7th, at 12:30pm, booth #2936
  • Key Factors in Choosing a SASE Solution: Thursday, August 8th, at 10:45am, booth #2936

Further details

Be ready for anything and bring the best version of yourself – you never know who you’ll meet. They could be your next software developer, corporate manager, business partner, MSSP, or cyber security vendor. Meet us at booth #2936. We can’t wait to see you at Black Hat USA 2024!

For more event information, click here. For additional cutting-edge cyber security insights, click here. Lastly, to receive cyber security thought leadership articles, groundbreaking research and emerging threat analyses each week, subscribe to the CyberTalk.org newsletter.

AI In Your Supermarket Ai-sles?

This century has seen the rise of digitization and technology across countless businesses and sectors. While tech companies and online retailers have driven much of this transformation, the past decade has also brought these changes to brick-and-mortar establishments as well. As such, supermarkets have increasingly turned…

Scientists pin down the origins of the moon’s tenuous atmosphere

Scientists pin down the origins of the moon’s tenuous atmosphere

While the moon lacks any breathable air, it does host a barely-there atmosphere. Since the 1980s, astronomers have observed a very thin layer of atoms bouncing over the moon’s surface. This delicate atmosphere — technically known as an “exosphere” — is likely a product of some kind of space weathering. But exactly what those processes might be has been difficult to pin down with any certainty.

Now, scientists at MIT and the University of Chicago say they have identified the main process that formed the moon’s atmosphere and continues to sustain it today. In a study appearing today in Science Advances, the team reports that the lunar atmosphere is primarily a product of “impact vaporization.”

In their study, the researchers analyzed samples of lunar soil collected by astronauts during NASA’s Apollo missions. Their analysis suggests that over the moon’s 4.5-billion-year history its surface has been continuously bombarded, first by massive meteorites, then more recently, by smaller, dust-sized “micrometeoroids.” These constant impacts have kicked up the lunar soil, vaporizing certain atoms on contact and lofting the particles into the air. Some atoms are ejected into space, while others remain suspended over the moon, forming a tenuous atmosphere that is constantly replenished as meteorites continue to pelt the surface.

The researchers found that impact vaporization is the main process by which the moon has generated and sustained its extremely thin atmosphere over billions of years.

“We give a definitive answer that meteorite impact vaporization is the dominant process that creates the lunar atmosphere,” says the study’s lead author, Nicole Nie, an assistant professor in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. “The moon is close to 4.5 billion years old, and through that time the surface has been continuously bombarded by meteorites. We show that eventually, a thin atmosphere reaches a steady state because it’s being continuously replenished by small impacts all over the moon.”

Nie’s co-authors are Nicolas Dauphas, Zhe Zhang, and Timo Hopp at the University of Chicago, and Menelaos Sarantos at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Weathering’s roles

In 2013, NASA sent an orbiter around the moon to do some detailed atmospheric reconnaissance. The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE, pronounced “laddie”) was tasked with remotely gathering information about the moon’s thin atmosphere, surface conditions, and any environmental influences on the lunar dust.

LADEE’s mission was designed to determine the origins of the moon’s atmosphere. Scientists hoped that the probe’s remote measurements of soil and atmospheric composition might correlate with certain space weathering processes that could then explain how the moon’s atmosphere came to be.

Researchers suspect that two space weathering processes play a role in shaping the lunar atmosphere: impact vaporization and “ion sputtering” — a phenomenon involving solar wind, which carries energetic charged particles from the sun through space. When these particles hit the moon’s surface, they can transfer their energy to the atoms in the soil and send those atoms sputtering and flying into the air. 

“Based on LADEE’s data, it seemed both processes are playing a role,” Nie says. “For instance, it showed that during meteorite showers, you see more atoms in the atmosphere, meaning impacts have an effect. But it also showed that when the moon is shielded from the sun, such as during an eclipse, there are also changes in the atmosphere’s atoms, meaning the sun also has an impact. So, the results were not clear or quantitative.”

Answers in the soil

To more precisely pin down the lunar atmosphere’s origins, Nie looked to samples of lunar soil collected by astronauts throughout NASA’s Apollo missions. She and her colleagues at the University of Chicago acquired 10 samples of lunar soil, each measuring about 100 milligrams — a tiny amount that she estimates would fit into a single raindrop.

Nie sought to first isolate two elements from each sample: potassium and rubidium. Both elements are “volatile,” meaning that they are easily vaporized by impacts and ion sputtering. Each element exists in the form of several isotopes. An isotope is a variation of the same element, that consists of the same number of protons but a slightly different number of neutrons. For instance, potassium can exist as one of three isotopes, each one having one more neutron, and there being slightly heavier than the last. Similarly, there are two isotopes of rubidium.

The team reasoned that if the moon’s atmosphere consists of atoms that have been vaporized and suspended in the air, lighter isotopes of those atoms should be more easily lofted, while heavier isotopes would be more likely to settle back in the soil. Furthermore, scientists predict that impact vaporization, and ion sputtering, should result in very different isotopic proportions in the soil. The specific ratio of light to heavy isotopes that remain in the soil, for both potassium and rubidium, should then reveal the main process contributing to the lunar atmosphere’s origins.

With all that in mind, Nie analyzed the Apollo samples by first crushing the soils into a fine powder, then dissolving the powders in acids to purify and isolate solutions containing potassium and rubidium. She then passed these solutions through a mass spectrometer to measure the various isotopes of both potassium and rubidium in each sample.

In the end, the team found that the soils contained mostly heavy isotopes of both potassium and rubidium. The researchers were able to quantify the ratio of heavy to light isotopes of both potassium and rubidium, and by comparing both elements, they found that impact vaporization was most likely the dominant process by which atoms are vaporized and lofted to form the moon’s atmosphere.

“With impact vaporization, most of the atoms would stay in the lunar atmosphere, whereas with ion sputtering, a lot of atoms would be ejected into space,” Nie says. “From our study, we now can quantify the role of both processes, to say that the relative contribution of impact vaporization versus ion sputtering is about 70:30 or larger.” In other words, 70 percent or more of the moon’s atmosphere is a product of meteorite impacts, whereas the remaining 30 percent is a consequence of the solar wind.

“The discovery of such a subtle effect is remarkable, thanks to the innovative idea of combining potassium and rubidium isotope measurements along with careful, quantitative modeling,” says Justin Hu, a postdoc who studies lunar soils at Cambridge University, who was not involved in the study. “This discovery goes beyond understanding the moon’s history, as such processes could occur and might be more significant on other moons and asteroids, which are the focus of many planned return missions.”

“Without these Apollo samples, we would not be able to get precise data and measure quantitatively to understand things in more detail,” Nie says. “It’s important for us to bring samples back from the moon and other planetary bodies, so we can draw clearer pictures of the solar system’s formation and evolution.”

This work was supported, in part, by NASA and the National Science Foundation.

Google’s Gemini 1.5 Pro dethrones GPT-4o

Google’s experimental Gemini 1.5 Pro model has surpassed OpenAI’s GPT-4o in generative AI benchmarks. For the past year, OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Anthropic’s Claude-3 have dominated the landscape. However, the latest version of Gemini 1.5 Pro appears to have taken the lead. One of the most widely…

Microsoft gains major AI client as TikTok spends $20 million

Where many have struggled to turn their cloud services into a profitable endeavour, Microsoft has stood out by integrating OpenAI’s successful AI technology. For instance, take TikTok. According to internal financial documents, as of March 2022, ByteDance’s TikTok was spending nearly $20 million every month on…

The hidden climate cost of AI: How tech giants are struggling to go green

As AI takes centre stage in Silicon Valley, an inconvenient truth is emerging behind the scenes: AI has a massive carbon footprint. Tech giants like Microsoft, Google and Amazon have made bold commitments to slash greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years, but the technology they’re…