Nobel in Africa is a Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) initiative in partnership with Stellenbosch University and is hosted under the auspices of the Nobel Foundation and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, with funding from the Knut & Alice Wallenberg Foundation. Through the initiative, STIAS will become the first institution outside Scandinavia to host Nobel Symposia on behalf of the Nobel Foundation since the symposium series was initiated in 1965.
The first symposium in the series will be held at STIAS in Stellenbosch from 24 to 28 October. It will focus on the area of Physics, and more specifically the topic “Predictability in science in the age of artificial intelligence".
The Nobel Symposia are ordinarily closed sessions where some of the world's top scientists deliberate on new research discoveries and developments in their field. The STIAS-SU-hosted Physics symposium, however, will include an outreach element that will see participants delivering public lectures at universities and research institutes countrywide as a way of taking science to a wider audience. The public outreach lectures are aimed at university academic staff and students to inspire the next generation of scholars on the continent, while also raising awareness of the latest scientific discoveries among the general public.
In conversation with internationally renowned and celebrated scientists and global change agents, the Nobel in Africa symposia seek to celebrate science and share breakthroughs with the scholarly, public and private sectors in South Africa and Africa. The aim is to provide an international forum to promote the sharing of innovative, high-level scholarship and demonstrate the importance of scientific research for the future of the continent and the world.
STIAS has a special focus on Africa and a long-term commitment to nurture future generations of scholars and intellectual leaders on the continent. Our ethos is to foster ongoing dialogue between Africa's brightest minds and their global counterparts.
183rd NOBEL SYMPOSIUM: Physics – outreach programme
Several public outreach lectures will take place both before and after the Physics symposium. See the full outreach programme below:
18 Oct, 17:00–18:30, University of the Western Cape
Public outreach lecture by Yin-Zhe Ma (University of KwaZulu-Natal)
20 Oct, 13:00–14:00, University of Cape Town
Public outreach lecture by Viatcheslav Mukhanov (LMU, Munich)
20 Oct, 18:00–19:30, Stellenbosch University
Public outreach lecture by Erik Aurell (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)
21 Oct, 16:30–19:00, Nelson Mandela University
Public outreach lecture by Neil Turok (University of Edinburgh), with an introductory talk by Thifhelimbilu Daphney Bucher (Cape Peninsula University of Technology)
21 Oct, 11:00–12:00, African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS)
Public outreach lecture by Francesco Petruccione (Stellenbosch University)
24 Oct, 16:30–18:00, Stellenbosch University
Public outreach lecture by Sir Michael Berry (University of Bristol)
31 Oct, 13:00–14:30, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Public outreach lecture by Neil Turok (University of Edinburgh) and Armita Nourmohammad (University of Washington)
31 Oct, 18:00–19:50, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Public outreach lecture by Mogens H. Jensen (University of Copenhagen) and Angelo Vulpiani (National Institute for Nuclear Physics, Rome)
1 Nov, 10:00–12:00, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Public outreach lecture by Erik Aurell (KTH Royal Institute of Technology) and Luca Gammaitoni (NiPS Lab, University of Perugia)
2 Nov, 16:00–17:00, University of the Witwatersrand
Public outreach lecture by Armita Nourmohammad (University of Washington)
ABOUT STIAS
The Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) is based at the historic Mostertsdrift Estate in Stellenbosch, South Africa. It was established in 1999 by a resolution of the Stellenbosch University Council, and in 2007, became an autonomous research organisation registered as a section 21 (not-for-profit) company. STIAS provides a fellowship programme that advances cross-disciplinary research. Modelled on similar institutes internationally, STIAS is the first of its kind in Africa and provides a creative space for the mind. Here, leading researchers and intellectuals from across the globe are supported to think innovatively and pursue sustainable strategies to the challenges facing the world, with a special though not exclusive focus on Africa.
For more information contact:
Noloyiso Mtembu
Spokesperson: Nobel in Africa initiative
noloyiso@sun.ac.za or 082 389 3370
