UB and Other African Universities Funded by a USA Corporation
The University of Botswana, together with a group of four other universities in Sub-Saharan Africa have been awarded US$800 000.00 collectively as funding for the African Materials Science and Engineering Network (AMSEN) projects.
AMSEN members are; University of Botswana, University of Namibia, Federal University of Technology, Akure-Nigeria, University of Nairobi-Kenya, and University of Witwatersrand –South Africa . These institutions will use the funds to assist each other in research and training in order to enhance manpower and facilities development in material science and engineering.
Professor Pushpendra Jain of the University of Botswana’s Physics Department is the Coordinator of AMSEN in Botswana. Professor L. A. Cornish from the Wits is the AMSEN Academic Director.
The funds came from the Carnegie Corporation, USA and the Science Initiative Group (SIG) at the Institute of Advanced Study (IAS), Pennsylvania under the Regional Initiative in Science Education (RISE). The funding is intended to promote MSc and PhD bursaries, staff and student exchanges, procurement of equipment and cover other related operational costs that will ensure professional growth of this field.
The University of Botswana prides itself in participating in this project more so that it will contribute to the growth of the Faculty of Science at the University which already has excellent state-of-the-art materials science research facilities under the Faculty Shared Facilities scheme.