This award provides partial support for US students and lecturers to attend the first "Biennial African School on Fundamental Physics and its Applications" to be held at the Stellenbosch University near Capetown. The school will last 3 weeks and be located in the region of sub-Saharan Africa. There will be three main topics at the school: 1) theoretical physics, 2) experimental sub-atomic physics and 3) accelerators and technologies. The contents will be aimed primarily at doctoral students and on students finishing their last year of university studies, but young researchers will also be encouraged to apply. This school will serve as an opportunity for US students and professional physicists to interact with their counterparts in sub-Saharan Africa and to form collaborations and partnerships.
This grant was used to support US lecturers and participants in the ASP2010 summer school held in Stellenbosch South Africa Aug 1-21, 2010. This was the first school of its type to be held in sub-Saharan Africa. The school drew students from all of Africa (but mostly from the sub-Saharan part), as well as from Europe and North America. One critical aspect of this school was that no fees were charged to the students, and that travel and subsistence support were made available to needy students. The aim of the school was to add to the capacity in Africa of harvesting, interpreting and exploiting the results of current and future experiments with particle accelerators, and increasing proficiency in related applications and technologies. The school also allowed for cultural and intellecutual exchanges between the US-based lecturers and students, and the African participants. A total of 65 students participated in ASP2010, including 61 students from 18 African countries, one student from India and one each from the US, Canada and Switzerland. Sixteen percent of the students were female. The students were selected from more than 150 eligible applicants. Four main topics formed the backbone of the school: theoretical physics, experimental subatomic physis, information technology and grid computing, and accelerators and applied technology. Each topic was further divided into an initial set of recaps of essential background knowledge, followed by four main lecture themes, and finally a dedicated theme on computing-related aspects of the topic. Exercises were carried out in groups, with a single mentor assigned to each group. These groups also provided opportunities for discussing questions arising fom the lecture material. The experience was extremely valuable for all of the participants. By attending the school, most students were expecting to learn more about the international high energy physics community, to make contacts through networking with lecturers and to get more information about scholarship and fellowship opportunities, especially in the US and Europe. There was also a desire to get ideas for future research, as well as connecting to other African scientists.
