List of meetings organized by the US-Africa Initiative
Workshop on Computational Ab initio Quantum Thermodynamics
November 28 - December 1, 2022. Columbia Global Center, Nairobi, and Technical University of Kenya. Partially supported by USAfrI. The organizers were Renata Wentzcovitch, George Amolo, and Michael Atambo.
Workshop website at Minerals Cloud
Some of the participants: from left to right, Stephen Chege, Kiptiemoi Korir, Leah Wairimu, Perpetua Wanjiru, Gladys King’ori, Carolyne Bakasa, George Amolo, Mariamu Ali, Renata Wentzcovitch, Catherine Pascal.
2nd Row from Left, Bill C. Oyomo, Charles Rotich, Michael O. Atambo. Photo supplied by Renata Wentzcovitch.
May 2022 Workshop for the US-Africa Initiative in Electronic Structure - Virtual
Wednesday-Friday, May 25 - 27, 2022. Hosted by Columbia University, NY USA. Held from 3-7pm Kigali time, in order to encourage participation from African time zones. There was no registration fee for the USAfrI 2022 workshop. Photo below supplied by Michael Martin.
Summary: most sessions had 45-65 attendees. The scientific program centered on short talks from the Summer 2022 participants (e.g. the African researchers who traveled to research hosts in the United States.) The program also included a panel discussion focused on opportunities for US-Africa collaboration: the Special Issue in IOP's Electronic Structure on this USAfrI workshop and ways to become involved i n the Materials Project at Lawrence Berkeley Lab.
The workshop talks were livestreamed and recorded on the USAfrI YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWsXUMqFtM7XFUYCceZmFnA/videos
Webpage of participant and speaker names, the schedule, and talk slides. https://usafricainitiative.org/MayWorkshop2022/
Cross participation: June 2022 Workshop on Recent Developments in Electronic Structure - hybrid
Webpage of participant and speaker names, the schedule, and talk slides. https://www.apam.columbia.edu/international-workshop-recent-developments-electronic-structure-es22-1
USAfrI participants received fee waivers to join the annual Recent Developments in Electronic Structure Workshop, also held at Columbia University, June 1-3, 2022. The USAfrI participants presented posters of their research, and the banquet featured a presentation by Nithaya Chetty, University of the Witwatersrand, detailing his efforts with Richard Martin to further science in Africa, and future directions.
March 2021 Kickoff Workshop for the US-Africa Initiative in Electronic Structure - Virtual
APS March Meeting 2021, Sunday, March 14, 2021, 8am – 12 pm Central time
Webpage of participant and speaker names, the schedule, video presentations, and poster presentations. https://usafricainitiative.org/APS2021/
Summary: ~50 registered participants. The African researchers were given APS fee waivers to participate in the US-AfrI workshop and the rest of the APS March Meeting.
June 2021 Workshop for the US-Africa Initiative in Electronic Structure - Virtual
June 14 -18, 2021, hosted by the ICTP-EAIFR, University of Rwanda, Kigali, Rwanda. Held for five days, 3-6 pm Kigali time, to encourage participation from African time zones. There was no registration fee for the USAfrI 2021 workshop.
Summary: ~90 registered participants. Each day’s events included a keynote and four short talks, and poster sessions on the day’s scientific theme.
The workshop talks were live-streamed and recorded on the USAfrI YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWsXUMqFtM7XFUYCceZmFnA/videos
Webpage of participant and speaker names, the schedule, videos presentations, and 100+ poster presentations. https://usafricainitiative.org/JuneWorkshop2021/
Planned future activities
- Gebreyesus, Griffin and Martin are organizers of the ASESMA series and we anticipate involvement of several US people, hopefully supported by the NS.
The Seminar series 2021-2023 at the EAIFR has had several US speakers from USAfrI:
- Neepa Maitra, Rutgers University
- Zhen Zhang, Columbia University
- Giulia Galli, University of Chicago & Argonne National Laboratory
- David Prendergast, The Molecular Foundry
- Renata Wentzcovitch, Columbia University
- Mark Hybertsen, Brookhaven Nat. Laboratory
- Maria Chan, Argonne National Lab