Physics and Astronomy at Western Blog, Physics and Astronomy at Western What's Happening

Stories on Carbon-based nanomaterials – 6th Africa MRS Conference (II)

One of the reasons Zimbabwe has been chosen as a venue to the 6th Africa MRS Conference is to reconnect the local scientific community to the world after years of social and economic struggling of this Country (just a quick look on Wikipedia will help you out in understanding)

Here are a few data on Africa’s share in the World of Research I took from one slide that came out at the Plenary Session. Africa has…

  • 15% of the World population, but contributes only 2% to the World economy
  • Spends an average 0.3% GDP in R&D activities (most areas in the World are at least a few percent)
  • Has 1.4% share of the World Scientific Output
  • Has 1.2% of the World Scientific Researchers (which means an African Scientific Researcher is more productive than average, since 1.4/1.2 > 1 – We should learn from them!)
  • 31% of African researchers are Women (not sure women have the same share in Physics in Canada…)

I will keep you updated on what’s going on here!