AfricaArray working to develop scientific workforce, research in Africa

University Park, Pa. -- As the African natural resources sector has been booming, the demand for trained African scientists to support that economic growth is high. To help meet that demand by expanding educational opportunities and research on the continent, Penn State has partnered with the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and the Council for Geosciences in South Africa to develop AfricaArray, a long-term public-private initiative to promote coupled training and research programs for building and maintaining a scientific workforce in Africa.

"There's a lot of need for well-trained scientists in Africa right now and companies are under pressure to hire local staff," says Andy Nyblade, the Penn State associate professor of geosciences who co-founded the initiative. "There just aren't that many well-trained African scientists in Africa for them to hire. There's also a need in academia and among government agencies."

The initiative began in 2003, when Penn State's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences launched the Alliance for Earth Sciences, Engineering and Development in Africa (AESEDA). At AESEDA's kickoff symposium, Nyblade met Paul Dirks, head of the geosciences department at Wits who had come looking for ways to rebuild the geophysics program there.

After discussion with Dirks, the pair agreed they needed to draw students from other African nations as well. Meanwhile, to enhance the geophysics education and train students at the Ph.D. level, they knew a strong research infrastructure would be necessary. Out of that, AfricaArray was born and launched in 2005.

"What started out as an idea for building a geophysics education in Africa evolved into a program where we were putting together a strong research program with the education," says Nyblade, a native of Tanzania.

The initial focus is on geophysics to support capacity building in extractive industries, such as oil and gas and mineral exploration, as well as water and geothermal exploration. To support training and research, AfricaArray has begun by setting up a research infrastructure around a set of seismic observatories for shared data gathering.

"We hope that over time these seismic stations will evolve into multifunctional and multidisciplinary scientific observatories, supporting a lot of different science fields," Nyblade adds. "Once we get this network in place, it will become a community resource. The stations are recording common data in different African countries and our hope is that it will help to build a science community through a shared facility and provide data for the students for their research. Those are the two primary goals we have been trying to work towards."

AfricaArray already has 18 stations running in six African countries -- primarily in eastern and southern Africa -- and Nyblade says they are looking to have another six established by the end of the year. Future phases will move into other areas of Africa, and Nyblade said they will begin deploying temporary stations for a year or two, filling in gaps between permanent stations, starting next summer in Uganda and Tanzania.

Looking ahead, Nyblade says the observatories have the potential to include sensors from other scientific fields, and he has begun discussions about this with Penn State's meteorology department and the Penn State Institutes of the Environment.

On the education side, AfricaArray is working to expand and improve the geophysics program at Wits by increasing enrollment, raising funds to hire and train faculty and purchase more equipment. In the future, the program will build centers of excellence in geophysics at other African universities.

"We want to build a training program in Africa for African students working on African problems and using African data sets," Nyblade explains.

Among the funding Nyblade has secured for the program, the National Science Foundation has provided significant resources through a program called Partnerships for International Relationships in Education (PIRE), which funds American-based scientists to have an international experience. Through PIRE, AfricaArray has funded Penn State post-doctoral associates, graduate students and research associates to work on the program, and Nyblade is looking to get more Penn State scientists on board.

Additionally, this summer AfricaArray conducted a geophysics field course for undergraduates from historically black colleges and universities through Penn State's Summer Research Opportunities Program. Students from North Carolina A&T and Fort Valley State universities came to Penn State then traveled to Africa for three weeks for an intensive, project-based field course in geophysics. As early as next year, Penn State undergraduate geoscience students may have the opportunity to do field work in Africa as part of AfricaArray.

Many companies and government agencies have expressed strong support for AfricaArray -- both for building the scientific workforce and for the research and data sets AfricaArray is gathering. Some organizations have provided funding for Ph.D. students and to build and operate seismic stations, while others, such as the Council for Geosciences in South Africa, have provided in-kind support that has provided invaluable resources for research and which Nyblade calls "absolutely vital to what we are doing."

Nyblade says that having grown up and spent much time in Africa has enabled him to take AfricaArray further than he otherwise would have been able. Even after leaving for college, he has since returned many times to teach, study and do research, strengthening his professional relationships on the continent

"I've continued my interaction with people and colleagues in Africa for a long period of time," he says. "I wouldn't have been able to put this together, I don't think, and gotten this far if I didn't have that experience over the years in Africa. And always, understanding the people, culture and political situations and knowing the scientific community there is very important."

For more information on AfricaArray, visit http://africaarray.psu.edu online.