Neil Turok: 2008 TED Prize wish: An African Einstein
Neil Turok works on understanding the universe’s very beginnings. With Stephen Hawking, he developed the Hawking-Turok instanton solutions, describing the birth of an inflationary universe -- positing that, big bang or no, the universe came from something, not from utter nothingness.
Recently, with Paul Steinhardt at Princeton, Turok has been working on a cyclic model for the universe in which the big bang is explained as a collision between two “brane-worlds.” The two physicists recently cowrote the popular-science book Endless Universe.
In 2003, Turok, who was born in South Africa, founded the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in Muizenberg, a postgraduate center supporting math and science. His TED Prize wish: Help him grow AIMS and promote the study and math and science in Africa, so that the world's next Einstein may be African.
Later on in 2008, Turok was named the Executive Director of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, in Ontario, Canada.
"To me this seems like one of the most fundamental questions in science, because everything we know of emerged from the Big Bang. Whether it's particles or planets or stars or, ultimately, even life itself."Neil Turok, interviewed on Edge.com
Next Einstein.org is his website.
Education, research and economic development: A lesson for America
A bit paternalistic, god knows, but good intentions. And they've got a youtube.com channel here
Here are some graduates of the program:
AIMS student Ousmane on science and sustainable development
Ousmane, an AIMS student from Burkina Faso, was convinced by his family that the only way to face poverty was through education. After receiving a BA and MA in physics, he became a high school teacher to save money for further education. Ousmane began AIMS in 2006 and now plans to get an MA and PhD in water engineering. His ultimate goal is to return to home to work toward the sustainable development of his country, as both a practitioner in the field and as a lecturer at a water institute.
AIMS alum Hind on the hope she found at AIMS
Hind, born in Central Sudan to a family of eight, happened upon AIMS in a unique way. While studying mathematical science at the University of Khartoum, she picked up a paper her colleague had been using as a fan, only to discover it was an AIMS advertisement. There were only three days to the deadline but she applied and was accepted. In AIMS she found a home full of people from diverse backgrounds, lecturers that did not teach answers but rather how to think about solving problems, and hope to pursue her dreams.
There's more there.