Empowering the next generation of scientists in Africa

The Future African Scientist organization was sparked by a connection between two students from different walks of life during an MIT program in South Africa.

Zach Winn | MIT News
MIT News (https://news.mit.edu/2024/empowering-next-generation-scientists-in-africa-0802)

No one is born a world-class scientist. Instead, their skills are built over many years of education, networking, mentorship, and work in laboratories or in the field.

That’s the fundamental insight behind the not-for-profit organization Future African Scientist, which is seeking to unleash the scientific potential of the continent by providing African students and early-career scientists with the support they need to do world-renowned research that addresses problems in their local communities and beyond.

Future African Scientist, or FAS, partners with leading scientists and institutions around the world, including MIT, to offer educational courses, training, networking events, and other programming around scientific research and entrepreneurship. More importantly, graduates of FAS programs join a network of scientists that helps them match with jobs, internships, and further learning opportunities.

“Our programs aim to democratize access to science education and create a new wave of scientists that are going to study African problems and not just publish papers, but also translate that research into beneficial products as well as policies,” says FAS co-founder Martin Lubowa.

At the core of FAS is a belief in the power of connections to further scientific understanding. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that FAS began with a connection between two people from very different walks of life during an MIT program.

From roommates to co-founders

In 2020, Daniel Zhang ’22 participated in Biology Professor Bruce Walker’s course HST. 434 (Evolution of an Epidemic) as part of a MISTI Global Classroom during MIT’s Independent Activities Period (IAP). The course immerses students in a South African community to teach them about the AIDS epidemic from the perspective of doctors, researchers, policymakers, and local infected women.

That IAP happened to be the first year the class paired MIT students with students from the African Leadership Academy, which seeks to build leadership skills in African youth. Zhang’s roommate was Martin Lubowa.

“Martin and I bonded instantly despite coming from completely different cultures and backgrounds,” Zhang recalls. “We shared passions for education, mentorship, and sports.”

Despite waking up early each day for class, Zhang and Lubowa talked late into the nights. Many of their conversations centered around the differences in STEM opportunities between students in the U.S. and African countries. They also discussed the importance of STEM in economic development and eventually identified a lack of mentorship programs as a key problem. They decided to found Future African Scientist to close those gaps.

With support and encouragement from Walker, the pair kept in touch after the class and focused their mission to equipping university and high school students in Africa with early-stage mentorship and critical thinking skills that would enable them to conduct independent research projects.

In January 2022, they organized their first virtual bootcamp for students across Africa. The bootcamp featured virtual courses, lectures by leading African scientists, mentorship opportunities, and a capstone project that challenged students to apply their learnings.

“We didn’t want to just give them research skills, but also entrepreneurship skills and interpersonal skills to position them as scientific entrepreneurs,” Lubowa says.

After receiving positive feedback and learning more about the skills students needed, the founders broadened the structure of FAS.

Today, a similar bootcamp on foundational research skills serves as the first stage of FAS’s four-part Africa Science Research Academy. The second stage is a data-driven research project that exposes participants to working in a lab. The third stage teaches skills including entrepreneurship, leadership, financial literacy, and grant management. The final stage, the Africa Science Opportunity Network, is available to FAS graduates for life and is designed to connect participants with internships, jobs opportunities, and other research projects.

“What makes us different from most of the research training programs in Africa is that we are open to anyone who is curious,” Lubowa says. “Most of the programs on the continent target MDs who already practicing, or PhDs, which is a bit unfair for people who are curious, but they don’t have the right platform to channel that curiosity into meaningful experiences.”

To date, more than 100 students and young professionals have gone through FAS programming. The students hail from more than 30 universities and 15 countries. FAS has also partnered with 10 medical student associations that have helped it expand its network to more than 100,000 students across the continent. FAS is also in conversations with organizations like the African Microscope Initiative, which has offered to recruit FAS graduates for more specialized training in bioimaging, as well as African state governments to create upskilling programs that could serve as alternatives to MD and PhD programs.

“We see Africa transitioning from just being a beneficiary of the global scientific community to becoming a contributor,” Lubowa says. “That means we can help the U.S. and other Western countries solve their problems. The issue at the moment is getting people the skills they need and changing their mindset so they understand they can do great things, and that in the long run, they can not just generate knowledge, but also create enterprises that address some of these challenges within Africa and beyond.”

Meeting the needs of the continent

In 2022, a pair of students from the Association of Mbarara University Pharmaceutical Sciences in Uganda learned about the foundations of entrepreneurship through FAS’ programming. They are in the process of commercializing their research into mosquito repellants made from locally-sourced materials. That same year, an undergraduate Cameroonian alumna of FAS placed third in a national science competition despite going up against PhDs. His research was in early detection of pancreatic cancer.

“One of the aspirational goals of Future African Scientists is to cultivate a sustainable scientific ecosystem where beyond academia, there’s also a science industry in Africa,” Lubowa says.

Further down the line, FAS would like to open its own laboratories to broaden access to equipment, and FAS’s team has already spoken with companies that exchange second-hand medical and laboratory equipment to help improve scientific infrastructure at African institutes.

“Our long-term plans include establishing general-purpose, open laboratories where students across Africa can go and learn how to do practical science,” Lubowa says.

With all work, FAS seeks to empower Africans to become a global scientific force for good.

“We have a population of 1.2 billion people in Africa, but we only have 198 scientists per million people. The U.S. has more than 4,000 scientists per million people,” Lubowa says. “Africans also have the highest burden of disease, so there’s really a need for us to rethink how we have been training scientists, and it all goes back to these support systems. I really think we can change the scientific landscape in Africa.”

Reprinted with permission of MIT News
http://news.mit.edu/