US-Africa Advanced Studies Institute on Photon Interactions with Atoms and Molecules

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0542410 Msezane This award supports the US-Africa Advanced Studies Institute on Photon Interactions with Atoms and Molecules, November 2-12, 2005 in Durban, South Africa. Organized by Dr. Alfred Z. Msezane of Clark Atlanta University, Dr. Edmund Zingu of the South African Institute of Physics and Dr. Philemon Mjwara of the South African Council on Scientific and Industrial Research, the Advanced Studies Institute will bring together from the US and Africa approximately 50 advanced graduate students and postdoctoral researchers and 20 lecturers. The African participants will come from the institutions that make up the African Laser Centre, a virtual center of excellence that links scientists and laser infrastructure in at least six African nations. The general theme of the intensive set of lectures is light-matter interactions, incorporating a range of fields being actively studied in the US and Africa, including Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics, Physical Chemistry, and Materials Science. The lectures will address the most recent findings in these fields, as well as the theoretical, computational and experimental tools that will be key to future advances. The Institute will provide excellent scientific training for both US and African young scientists. It will also help to establish an international network of collaborating scientists, linking them through the African Laser Centre, one of the strongest combinations of human and physical infrastructure for science in Africa. A significant number of African-American, African and women faculty and students will be involved, contributing to NSF goals of engaging underrepresented groups in the US and developing a more globally-engaged cadre of scientific leaders. The Institute will provide training and help establish international collaborations in fields of science that can positively impact the US and Africa, for example by enhancing industrial and medical applications of photon interactions or by accelerating research on cheaper energy sources through nanoscience. Finally, the Institute is timed to coincide with the World Conference on Physics and Sustainable Development being held in Durban the preceding week, enabling some of the Institute participants to contribute to and learn from this important meeting. This award is co-funded by the Division of Chemistry and the Division of Physics.