Research Chairs Program

The Research Chair programme at AIMS is one of the strategic initiatives aimed at attracting talented researchers who are able to establish research groups within the mathematical sciences and its applications at AIMS centres. Objectives of the AIMS Research Chair programme include: postgraduate and postdoctoral research; capacity building and fostering collaborations among AIMS centres and other national, regional, and global institutions including industry.


German Research Chairs

The German Research Chairs are established under the program financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) entitled “German Research Chairs” and intended as a long-term contribution to strengthening mathematical higher education and research in Africa, in particular to promoting international networking in mathematics.

  • Prof. Mouhamed Moustapha Fall, Specialisation: Geometric Partial Differential Equations (AIMS Senegal)
  • Dr Olivier Menoukeu Pamen, Specialisation:Stochastic Differential Equations, MalliavinCalculus, Financial Mathematics (AIMS Ghana)
  • Dr Bubacarr Bah, Specialisation: Data Science (AIMS South Africa)
  • Prof. Gisele Mophou, Specialisation: Control Theory and Calculus of Variations (AIMS Cameroon, appointed from April 2017)

South African Research Chairs

The South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) was established in 2006 by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the National Research Foundation (NRF). It is designed to attract and retain excellence in research and innovation at South African public universities through the establishment of Research Chairs at public universities in South Africa with a long-term investment trajectory of up to fifteen years.

Two of the Chairs already appointed under this program are jointly hosted by AIMS South Africa and other institutions/universities in South Africa.

  • Prof. Cang Hui, South African Research Chair in Mathematical and Theoretical Physical Biosciences (mathematical biology) at AIMS South Africa and Stellenbosch University
  • Prof. Romeel Davé, South African Research Chair in Cosmology with Multi-wavelength Data at AIMS South Africa, University of Western Cape and South African Astronomical Observatory

IDRC Junior Research Chairs
Supported by the Canadian IDRC, within the Research for Africa project, the objectives are:

  1. To act as a catalyst to strengthen and grow the current AIMS network research programs;
  2. To position AIMS research centres in Ghana and South Africa as centres of excellence globally;
  3. To contribute towards capacity building of AIMS alumni, positioning them as the next generation of African researchers actively involved in Africa’s socio-economic growth through mathematical science research initiatives.

AIMS South Africa and AIMS Ghana are jointly hosting the two Chairs appointed within this program.


AIMS ARETÉ Junior Research Chairs

This Research Chair program was created by AIMS in collaboration with Robert Bosch Stiftung (Germany). It is geared at supporting excellent young scientists and enhancing research on the African continent. ARETÉ in this case stands both for its Greek meaning of excellence and realisation of potential as well as the acronym “African Research, Education and Teaching Excellence”.

Launched in 2013 the program offers high-profile and pioneering 5-year Junior Research Chair positions to young and emerging African researchers who have acquired profound international professional/research experience outside of Africa, and are interested in international class research and in supporting the academic development of their home country and/or other African countries.

Both Chairs are hosted at AIMS South Africa.

  • Dr Antoine Tambue, ARETÉ Junior Research Chair (Foundations and scientific computing)
  • Dr Yabebal Fantaye, ARETÉ Junior Research Chair (Applied Statistical Methods, Cosmology and Big Data)