About the U.S.-Africa Initiative in Electronic Structure

The U.S.– Africa Initiative in Electronic Structure (USAfrI) aims to create a platform for exchange between African and U.S. physicists with opportunities to have a major impact on research and education in Africa. Electronic Structure is a natural choice because it is an essential part of research with applications in many fields, and there is a network of capable researchers in Africa generated by sustained efforts over the past 10 years. This proposal is for two workshops, one in Africa where participants meet one another to identify common interests, and one a year later in the U.S. followed by individual visits of Africans to research groups and user facilities in the U.S. to further develop potential working relationships.

The U.S.-Africa Initiative in Electronic Structure is supported by of the Innovation Fund of the American Physical Society: Announcement of the USAPS Innovation Fund: Inaugural Winners Selected, August/September 2019 (Volume 28, Number 8)

USAfrI events are co-organized with the ICTP-East African Institute for Fundamental Research.

USAfri is also supported by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Physics Department in the Grainger College of Engineering.

The 2021-2022 Participants of USAfrI

The directory of 2021-2022 Participants of USAfrI

The USAfrica Initiative Project Leaders are:

Omololu Akin-Ojo (EAIFR) is a condensed matter physicist from Nigeria and directs the ICTP-East African Institute for Fundamental Research .

Sinead Griffin (Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory) is a Staff Scientist and leads a research group based in Materials Science Division and Molecular Foundry at Berkeley Lab.

Richard Martin (University of Illinois and Stanford University) is Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of Illinois and a Consulting Professor in the Department of Applied Physics at Stanford University.

Renata Wentzcovitch (Columbia University) is a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering in the Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics Department, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University.

Amy Young is the Communicators Director for the US-Africa Initiative, with many years of experience working with summer schools and other programs specifically related to support electronic structure research internationally.

2021-2022 Advisory Board