EMS experts promote research ties at National Academies US-African symposium

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For some pressing research problems, an ocean’s worth of distance isn’t enough to prevent the connection to some common ground. That’s the point behind the annual National Academies U.S.-Africa Frontiers of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) Symposium. And it’s why the College of Earth and Minerals Sciences (EMS) joined Google, the Gates and Rutter Foundations, the Department of Defense and others as sponsors of the event.

“The objectives of this program align so nicely with our Alliance for Education, Science, Engineering and Design With Africa,” said Lee Kump, the John Leone Dean of EMS and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. “We are building collaborations and capacity in African nations with great talent and promise for the future.”

The event, now in its third year, links top researchers from both continents to collaborate on common challenges. Topics such as agriculture, space science, water security, energy, sustainability and natural hazards share no borders.

Two faculty members in EMS, Nelson Dzade, assistant professor of energy and mineral engineering, and Nutifafa Yao Doumon, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, and of engineering science and mechanics, were among the roughly 50 U.S. researchers, along with 50 African researchers, selected out of a pool of more than 500 experts to attend the conference. The symposium, held in February in the Rwandan capital Kigali, featured researchers who most closely aligned with selected themes such as new solutions for decarbonization, smart and connected cities, advances in space research, biotechnology and precision agriculture. Representatives from funding agencies such as the U.S. Army and Navy were among those in attendance.

Dzade is an energy and materials expert whose research involves cutting-edge materials theory and machine learning applied to problems across solid-state chemistry and physics, including materials for solar cells, batteries, chemical catalysts and critical mineral separation. At the symposium, he highlighted the important role of predictive multiscale modeling and simulations in the rational design and optimization of advanced materials for next-generation energy conversion and storage devices.

Doumon, an interdisciplinary scientist, researches solution-processed, next-generation solar energy harvesting and optoelectronic devices to understand their fundamental issues of degradation and reliability.

Doumon said the symposium was a chance to meet like-minded researchers while also being immersed in interdisciplinary approaches to solving global challenges.

“It’s far from a traditional conference,” Doumon said. “You’re engaging with people outside of your research areas and listening to their perspectives. That’s what makes it interesting.”

Dzade said it wasn’t just a chance to discuss research. In quoting NASEM president Marcia McNutt, Dzade said an emergency isn’t the time to exchange numbers. It’s time to call.

He’s been making a lot of calls. In the weeks since the event, he has submitted two joint National Academies Visiting Scholars Fellowships grants with his newfound African collaborators, Lahoucine Atourki at Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco, and Linda Nyamen at the University of Yaoundé I, Cameroon. He said these fellowships will help facilitate exchange visits to initiate collaborative research and explore potential co-supervision arrangements.

Similarly, Doumon is making connections with researchers here and abroad and has since submitted two joint proposals for short visits of African scholars to his lab at Penn State, one to NASEM and the other to the International Centre for Theoretical Physics fellowship program.

“We were among people who want to champion something in a particular direction, and they are aware they can’t do it alone,” Dzade said. “When you bring a collection of such people together in the same room, these relationships grow organically. Everybody is excited about their research and the new frontiers they want to push. That’s the kind of atmosphere the symposium created.”

Douman also praised the newfound research connections.

“If you sow 1,000 seeds, you’ll get more fruit,” Doumon said. “That’s something that drives me. I’m looking for connections that can drive both parties’ success and research output forward.”

Dzade credited the symposium with bringing people together to see where they could benefit one another but also to explore new opportunities and to see what is possible.

“Collaborative research is crucial for scientific advancement because it allows researchers to combine diverse expertise, share resources and tackle complex problems that will be impossible for a single individual or institution to solve alone, leading to more innovative and impactful discoveries,” Dzade said. “That’s the key message. We want to continue to foster these collaborations that drive impactful research that’s mutually beneficial.”