Thierry Zomahoun

Last updated

Thierry Zomahoun, born in Benin, a country in West Africa, is a Benin-Canadian national. He is a political economist, an industry leader, a grand strategist and a global thought leader for innovative education initiatives. [1] [2]

Contents

Zomahoun is the Chairman and CEO of The Niagara Forum[ citation needed ] an international platform in Canada focused on geopolitics, science, and innovation [ citation needed ].

He is also the Chairman and CEO of SPG Inc[ citation needed ]., a high-tech firm based in Toronto. In 2013, Zomahoun founded the Next Einstein Forum (NEF) to promote science and innovation in Africa[ citation needed ], with its inaugural event held in Senegal in 2016[ citation needed ] and a second edition in Rwanda in 2018. He established The Kifra Prize in 2019 to honor research excellence.[ citation needed ]

Previously, Zomahoun served as the first president and CEO of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) from 2011 to early 2020[ citation needed ], expanding it into a network of centers across Africa. In 2019, he was recognized by The New African Magazine as one of the top 100 Most Influential Africans[ citation needed ].

Innovative education advocacy

During his leadership at AIMS, he focused on developing and expanding a network of campuses for graduate scholarship and research in Mathematical Sciences. Saved from the streets by his grandmother, he learned the value of education at a young age and achieved graduate degrees from universities in Africa, Europe, and North America. [3] Since 2011, his work has focused on creating an enabling environment for the transformation of Africa through education. [4]

Fluent in French and English, Zomahoun is a public advocate for altering perceptions about the potential of African youth and changing attitudes about Africa's role as a global hub for science. [5] [6] He told Jeffrey Marlow from Wired (website) at Falling Walls 2014 in Berlin that AIMS graduates are prepared to challenge the status quo. [5] Through formal Masters programs, applied research and science school teacher training programs, the academic institutes produce scholars versed in critical thinking, independent reasoning and problem solving. His objective is to form a generation of young scientists and leaders to develop the continent using innovation and change the image of Africa to a continent where science is embraced. [7] [8]

During a meeting with parliamentarians in Ottawa, Canada in October 2014, Zomahoun told Carl Bernier in a Radio Canada interview, "With a new generation of young scientists we want to transform the image of Africa." [7] What is different about Zomahoun's approach is that his researchers' topics are directly aligned to development issues. "We are creating young leaders in health sciences, technology, finance and other disciplines from the investment of partners like the Canadian government," he said. "Investment from them has been key to the success of our centres in South Africa, Ghana, Senegal, Cameroon and Tanzania." [7]

Zomahoun underlines the importance of arming graduates with employment skills as well. "Our plan is to close the skills gap in Africa, we want to train our scholars to take leadership roles in health sciences, planning, technology, telecommunications and banking," he told Anasthasie Tudieshe of Radio France International. [8] This, Zomahoun believes, is important for youth career advancement and promotes employability. [8]

With the goal of encouraging more youth to pursue science, Zomahoun told Luca Tancredi Barone from EuroScientist (Euroscience) in 2015 that, “With 80 per cent of African scholars pursuing humanities, his plan is to accelerate training for scientists in mathematics.” [6] He believes that Mathematical Sciences provides the greatest benefit for Africa because the investment in infrastructure remains low. Zomahoun also noted with African projects such as the M-Pesa in Kenya and the Square Kilometre Array in South Africa, the continent will need more scientists like the ones trained at AIMS to ensure the programs succeed. [6]

He also advocates for young women to pursue mathematical sciences. [9] Zomahoun asserts that, “Women and youth must participate in change and development in Africa. [9] “The next Einstein will be African and her education in science will be the basis for the development of the continent,” he said when interviewed by Aliou Kande of Le Monde . [10]

Career, industry and initiatives

In 2013, Zomahoun founded the Next Einstein Forum (NEF), a global forum for science and technology, the first to take place on African soil, with the aim of making Africa a global centre for science discourse. The first NEF Global Gathering will take place in Dakar (Senegal) in March 2016. [2] [10]

Zomahoun joined AIMS in 2011. His academic team recruit the brightest post-graduate mathematics and science students in Africa and give them the opportunity to study with professors from international universities, in a 24-hour, tuition-free environment. The model proved effective in South Africa and when Zomahoun joined his mission was to replicate it across the continent. The expansion plan came to be known as the Next Einstein Initiative. [3] [11] Zomahoun’s focus is to ensure the institutes offer research and training opportunities that meet the highest international standards. [6] [12] “We must create the right environment for African scientists to thrive and remain at home to do their research and innovate,” Zomahoun told Philippa Thomas on BBC Four’s The World Tonight in 2014. [13]

Zomahoun was invited to join the delegation of Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper to the Summit of the Organization of La Francophonie in Dakar, Senegal in 2014. [14] He told Senegal’s Le Soleil , “With our partners, such as the Canadian Government, we ensure that they invest in science, research and mathematics to transform Africa through a socio-economic and technological development plan.” [14]

In June 2015, Zomahoun secured a $25 million (USD) investment from the MasterCard Foundation enabling 500 scholarship students to pursue master's degrees in mathematical sciences and developing a mathematics teacher training program. [10] The donation was announced in Cape Town on June 4, 2015. [10] [15]

Previously, Zomahoun has worked for Right to Play International, Aide et Action International, and ChildFund International. [1] Zomahoun believes that science must focus on impact and be useful to society. On a panel at the World Economic Forum 2015, Zomahoun debated that sciences and mathematics can be harnessed to offer relevant solutions for global problems. [16] AIMS has a student body that encompasses 42 African nationalities and attracts 150 to 200 instructors from 35 countries from around the globe each year. [17]

Education, awards and memberships

Zomahoun holds an MBA from HEC Montréal and McGill University Desautels School of Management. He has a DEA [Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies] and a Postgraduate Diploma in development studies from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Switzerland). He earned another master's degree and a Bachelors Degree from the National University of Benin.

Zomahoun has pursued his PhD in Political Science at the University of Guelph, Canada. He completed the coursework of his doctoral studies, but he had to put his fields research work on hold because of his heavy professional work load that spans several continent and multiple countries. While at the University of Guelph, Zomahoun was a teaching assistant in political economy with responsibility for Bachelors degree level students.

Zomahoun received several awards and was a member of several professional associations among which:

Bamako Forum Innovation Award (2020), NewAfrican Magazine Top 100 Most Influential Africans (2020), Development Leaders Award (2018), Stanford Who's Who Award (2010), Member, UK Trade Investment Task Force on Africa (2011-2013), Board Director, Canadian Council for International Corporation CCIC (2008-2010), Canadian Society of Associations Executives (2008-2010), Canadian Association of International Development Consultants (2008-2010).

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African Institute for Mathematical Sciences</span> 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African Academy of Sciences</span>

The African Academy of Sciences (AAS) is a non-aligned, non-political, not-for-profit, pan-African learned society formed in 1985.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Attias</span> Moroccan events producer (born 1959)

Richard Attias is a Moroccan events producer, founder and former chairman of PublicisLive and currently the executive chairman of Richard Attias and Associates. He is also the founder of The New York Forum and the co-founder of the Global Clinton Initiative and the Nobel Laureates Conference. From 1995 to 2008, he was the Executive Producer of the Davos Forum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">China–Senegal relations</span> Bilateral relations

China–Senegal relations refer to the foreign relations between China and Senegal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abba Gumel</span> Foundation Professor of mathematics

Abba Gumel is a Professor & The Michael and Eugenia Brin Endowed E-Nnovate Chair in Mathematics at the Department of Mathematics, University of Maryland, College Park. His research, which spans three main areas of applied mathematics, is focused on the use of mathematical modeling and rigorous approaches, together with statistical analysis, to gain insight into the dynamics of real-life phenomena arising in the natural and engineering sciences. The main emphasis of Gumel's work is on the mathematical theory of epidemics – specifically, he uses mathematical theories and methodologies to gain insights into the qualitative behavior of nonlinear dynamical systems arising from the mathematical modelling of phenomena in the natural and engineering sciences, with emphasis on the transmission dynamics and control of emerging and re-emerging human infectious diseases of public health and socio-economic interest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African School of Economics</span> Private university in Benin

The African School of Economics (ASE) is a private university headquartered in Abomey-Calavi, Republic of Benin. Currently (2024), its West Africa Hub has campuses in Abidjan, Ivory Coast; and Abuja, Nigeria. The East and Southern Africa Hub features campuses in Zambia and Zanzibar, Tanzania. ASE offers several degrees in Undergraduate and Postgraduate programmes all across its campuses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachel Sibande</span> Malawian technology expert and computer scientist.

Rachel Sibande is a Malawian computer scientist and social entrepreneur. She is the Founder of mHub, a technology hub and incubator for innovators and emerging entrepreneurs.

Science and technology in Burkina Faso summarizes trends in scientific education, research in policy in Burkina Faso since 2010, within the West Africa regional context.

In Ivory Coast, a country in West Africa, scientific output has been relatively modest. Scientists in Ivory Coast produced only 10 scholarly articles per million inhabitants in international journals in 2014, compared to a continental average of 20 per million. Between 2008 and 2014, scientists published mostly in biological sciences, followed by medical sciences, geosciences, agriculture and chemistry. The country also has few international collaborations, compared to the rest of the continent: whereas more than eight out of ten articles had a foreign co-author in most countries in 2014, the rate in Ivory Coast was 73%.

Aissa Wade is a Professor of Mathematics at the Pennsylvania State University. She was the President of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences centre in Senegal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Mboyo Esole</span> Congolese mathematician

Jonathan Mboyo Esole is an associate professor of mathematics at Northeastern University. He works on the geometry of string theory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Kariuki</span> Biologist (b. 1962)

Thomas M. Kariuki is a Kenyan biologist who is Chief Executive Officer of the Science for Africa Foundation. Kariuki previously served as the Director of Programmes for the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA). He was the Director of the Institute of Primate Research/National Museums of Kenya, for seven years. Kariuki’s research interests have spanned the immunology of neglected infectious diseases and he has been involved in global efforts to develop vaccines, drugs and diagnostics for poverty-related diseases. He has published on vaccines and diagnostics development for schistosomiasis (Bilharzia), malaria and co-infections and on policy issues related to biomedical research and funding. He is a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS), Senior Fellowship of the European Foundations Initiative for Neglected Tropical Diseases, Presidential honour of the Order of Grand Warrior of Kenya (OGW) for scientific leadership and public service, Honorary Professor of Research of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, LSTM.

Noble Banadda was a Ugandan biosystems engineer, researcher and academic, who was a professor of biosystems engineering at Makerere University, Uganda's largest and oldest public university. He was appointed a full professor in 2012 at age 37, one of the youngest persons in the history of the university to attain full professorship.

Xiuxiong Chen is a Chinese-American mathematician whose research concerns differential geometry and differential equations. A professor at Stony Brook University since 2010, he was elected a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society in 2015 and awarded the Oswald Veblen Prize in Geometry in 2019. In 2019, he was awarded the Simons Investigator award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yvonne Mburu</span> Kenyan immunologist

Yvonne Mburu is a Kenyan immunologist and Next Einstein Forum Fellow. She is the founder and CEO of Nexakli, a global network of African health professionals. Mburu is a co-founder and co-president of the French-African Foundation, as well as a member of the Presidential Council for Africa.

Nancy Ann Neudauer is an American mathematician specializing in matroid theory and known for her work in mathematical outreach in Africa and South America. She is a professor of mathematics at Pacific University, a co-director of the Center for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics, and a former governor of the Pacific Northwest Section of the Mathematical Association of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marian Asantewah Nkansah</span> Ghanaian scientist

Marian Asantewah Nkansah is a Ghanaian environmental chemist. Her research work focuses on finding solutions to environmental problems associated with levels and fate of toxic substances such as heavy/trace metals, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in food, water, soil, rocks, sediments and other environmental samples. She also researches on the interaction of these pollutants with each other in the environment. In 2016, together with some scientists from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, she led a research which led to the confirmation that edible white clay poses potential cancer risk. In 2016, she became the first scientist to win the Fayzah M. Al-Kharafi Prize, an annual award that recognises exceptional women scientists from scientifically and technologically lagging countries. She and Collins Obuah, another scientist from the University of Ghana, were the two scientist selected to attend the Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting in 2017. In 2021, she was among five women recipients in developing countries of the OWSD-Elsevier Foundation Awards. She received the 2022 Africa Role Model Overall Female Personality Award, and was inducted as a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences the same year.

Evelyn Nungari Gitau is a Kenyan cellular immunologist at the African Academy of Sciences, and was named a Next Einstein Fellow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amadou Hott</span> Senegalese economist and investment banker

Amadou Hott is the former Special Envoy of the President of the African Development Bank for the Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa. He is currently candidate for the Presidency of the African Development Bank. He is a Senegalese economist and investment banker, and served as Minister of Economy, Planning and International Cooperation of Senegal in the Fourth Sall government from April 2019 to September 2022. He was formerly the Vice President of the African Development Bank's Power, Energy, Green Growth and Climate Change Complex, a position he held from November 2016 until his Senegalese government appointment. Hott's career has spanned more than 20 years in areas including structured finance, sovereign fund management, investment banking, fundraising, infrastructure and the development of integrated energy solutions.

References

  1. 1 2 Fluery, Sophie (Spring 2015). "Alumni Portrait: Thierry Zomahoun". Globe: The Graduate Institute Review #15.
  2. 1 2 "About Us: Team, Thierry Zomahoun". www.nexteinstein.org. AIMS-Next Einstein Initiative. October 2015. Archived from the original on October 18, 2015. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
  3. 1 2 Duggal, Sneh (November 13, 2013). "Marking 10 years of nurturing the next Einstein in Africa: a Canadian-supported program celebrates with the GG in style in Ottawa". Embassy: Canada's Foreign Policy Newspaper. p. 2. Retrieved November 9, 2015.
  4. ↑ "International Development Research Centre: Who Can Apply - Profile of Thierry Zomahoun". www.idrc.ca. Archived from the original on 2015-12-01. Retrieved 2015-10-22.
  5. 1 2 Marlow, Jeffery (December 30, 2014). "Will Africa Produce the Next Einstein?". www.wired.com. Wired Magazine. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Tancredi Barone, Luca (March 12, 2015). "Thierry Zomahoun Podcast: Africa is Looking for its Einsteins". www.euroscientist.com.
  7. 1 2 3 Bernier, Carl (October 3, 2014). ""L'importance de l'education pour le développement de l'Afrique: Interview with Thierry Zomahoun."" ["The importance of education for the development of Africa: Interview with Thierry Zomahoun."]. Radio Canada (in French). Retrieved November 9, 2015.
  8. 1 2 3 Tudieshe, Anathasie (April 18, 2014). ""L'enseignement des mathématiques en Afrique," 7 Milliards de voisins" ["Teaching Mathematics in Africa," 7 Billion Neighbors]. Radio France Internationale (in French). Retrieved November 9, 2015.
  9. 1 2 "L'Institut Africain des Sciences Mathématiques plaide pour l'éducation des femmes et de la jeunesse" [The African Institute of Mathematical Sciences advocates for the education of women and youth]. L’encre noir (in French). November 29, 2014.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Tilouine, Joan (June 6, 2015). "L'Afrique à la recherche du prochain Einstein" [Africa in search of the next Einstein]. Le Monde (in French). Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  11. ↑ Ross, Oakland (February 8, 2014). "Searching for Einstein". Toronto Star. p. WD6.
  12. ↑ Whitehead, Eleanor (August 9, 2014). "Science in Africa on the rise: Scientific research in Africa is gathering momentum". The Economist. p. 42.
  13. ↑ Thomas, Philippa (January 1, 2014). "Special Panel Discussion on Africa and migration," The World Tonight, BBC Radio 4". British Broadcasting Corporation Radio Channel 4. Retrieved November 9, 2015– via www.bbc.co.uk.
  14. 1 2 Kande, Aliou (November 29, 2014). "SOMMET DE L'OIF : L'Aims fera partie de la délégation du Premier ministre canadien" [OIF SUMMIT: Aims will be part of the Canadian Prime Minister's delegation]. Le Soleil in Senegal (in French). p. 15. Retrieved October 24, 2015– via Calaméo.
  15. ↑ Kahn, Tamara (June 5, 2015). "Investment to boost African scientist numbers". Business Day Live. Retrieved 2015-11-13.
  16. ↑ "2015 World Economic Forum on Africa, List of Participants" (PDF). www.weforum.org. World Economic Forum. May 27, 2015. p. 34. Retrieved November 9, 2015.
  17. ↑ "About Us: Description". Next Einstein Initiative. African Institute for Mathematical Sciences: Next Einstein Initiative. October 23, 2015. Archived from the original on October 18, 2015. Retrieved October 23, 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.