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The African Laser Centre: Building laser science for Africa's development
The African Laser Centre (ALC) is an open non-exclusive partnership to stimulate innovation, research and technology development in lasers and the application of lasers. We aim to reach our vision through the following identified programmes:
* Research programme
* Educational programme
* Business development programme
* Technology transfer programme
* Equipment and research infrastructure programme
Upcoming ALC young researcher training events
In keeping with its commitment to build much-needed scarce laser based skills on the continent, the ALC will be hosting young reseracher training events in 2010.
3rd African Laser Centre Student Workshop
The 3rd African Laser Centre (ALC) Student Workshop on laser-based research will be held at the Zevenwacht Wine Estate in the Western Cape, South Africa, from 23 to 26 September 2010. The Workshop is aimed at ALC grant holders, students working on ALC projects and based at a South African university and a limited number of students working on South African Department of Science and Technology (DST) supported national Rental Pool laser research projects.
The purpose of the Workshop is to give grant holders and students the opportunity to present the research results from their ALC-funded projects, and to engage in discussions with colleagues and students from other institutions. The Workshop will be fully sponsored through a DST grant allocation for ALC activities.
Full details regarding the Workshopmay be found at:
www.sun.ac.za/physics/website/alc workshop 2010
To apply for participation in the Workshop, an abstract and an application form must be submitted for review. Please note the deadline for abstract and application submission is 1 May 2010.
Any enquiries may be directed to the Workshop Secretariat at e-mail:pew@sun.ac.za or telephone +27-21-808-3366.See full announcement below.
ALC sponsored chemistry seminar a resounding success
South Africa - The African Laser Centre (ALC) played sponsor and organiser to the first-of-its-kind chemistry based laser seminar, hosted in Irene on 03-05 May 2010.
The three-day ‘Lasers in Chemistry’ seminar culminated in a tour by students of the laboratories at the CSIR National Laser Centre. The African laser Centre is an open non-exclusive partnership to stimulate innovation, research and technology development in lasers and the application thereof.The concept of hosting the seminar was proposed to the ALC by Dr Patricia Forbes of UP, who organised the event.
According to Dr Forbes, the aims of the seminar were to bring together experts, postgraduate students and researchers in order to explore the use of lasers in various fields of chemistry and to provide for capacity development, networking, and the exploration of potential collaborative possibilities. “These objectives were met,” said Dr Forbes.
“The intention behind presentations was to stimulate interest in the use of lasers in chemistry-related applications as well as research in this regard, which is currently largely unexplored on the African continent,” she said. “There are a range of technologies where lasers are used in chemistry including Raman spectroscopy, LIDAR and laser-induced fluorescence. Applications in various topical fields, which were covered in the seminar, included environmental chemistry, femtosecond chemistry, materials science, and sunscreen chemistry”.
Dr Forbes said the great effort put into the seminar was made worth it by the positive response from the students and their grateful thanks for participating in the seminar. “It was also encouraging to hear about the interesting range of research which the students are involved in at various African universities,” she said.
The ALC is managed by one of its key member institutes, the CSIR National Laser Centre. The ALC manager Dr Paul Motalane said, “Yes, the ALC achieved its objective. The objective is enshrined in the ALC mission statement, which is to "Enable African nations to collaborate with each other and internationally play a major role in utilising light to advance science and technology, thereby contributing to the advancement of the economies, their global competitiveness, education and welfare of their people. This cooperation will take place in the spirit of NEPAD and an African Union”.
“In order for the ALC to develop and grow laser-based research on the African continent, we need to build human capital,” emphasised Dr Motalane. “We therefore run photonics educational training events such as the ‘Lasers in Chemistry Seminar’.
He says that there are other training events planned for the year.
An overwhelmed Simion Misoi from Kenya’s Egerton University said that the seminar was interesting and thought provoking. “I learnt that laser can be applied in many areas of chemistry,” he said, adding that the whole experience was a revelation to him. Simion is a chemistry postgraduate student.
A PhD student from the University of Cairo, Mahamoud Mohamed, said, that the LIDAR research at the CSIR was very important not only to South Africa but to the rest of the African continent. “The applications of this project are important,” he said.
Another PhD student Gcineka Mbambisa from Rhodes University, said, “The seminar was educational and I learnt a lot about lasers”.
Sylvester Ndambuki from Moi University in Kenya said, “This has been wonderful”.
Professor Sune Svanberg from Lund University in Sweden, who continues to contribute a great deal in innovative applications of laser technology, played a prominent role in this seminar and gave several presentations plus acted as chairman for a number of sessions. Participants stated that they thoroughly enjoyed his presentations on laser sensing in environmental research.
The seminar attendants were awarded certificates of attendance by the ALC chairperson and CSIR National Laser Centre Manager, Dr Ndumiso Cingo.
Three CSIR laser scientists also gave presentations at the seminar. They were:
Professor Andrew Forbes : Introduction to lasers
Dr Lourens Botha : Lasers as a tool in femtosecond chemistry
Dr Christoph Bollig : LIDAR research in Africa
Progress with ALC
Editor: Dr Paul Motalane
Early in its life the South African National Laser Centre (NLC) became aware of various laser related research activities in Africa, and initiated a programme to consolidate the activities and promote laser research within the continent. This initiative took the form of the African Laser Centre (ALC), the brainchild of the NLC.
The ALC is growing from strength to strength and currently boasts membership of 30 institutes who are situated in East, West, Central, South and North African countries. The ALC's main objective is to grow laser based research through collaborative networks with human capital development as key driver. The ALC is proud of the South African Department of Science and Technology (DST) for the generous sponsorship since inception. Through this funding support by DST, the ALC has managed to fully develop a laser Research Programme, Educational Programme as well as Organisational Development programme.
The ALC maintains good governance under the direction of a Board of Directors. The current ALC Board of Directors comprises Prof Tom Otiti (Uganda), Dr El-Hachemi Amara (Algeria), Prof Shyam Singh (Namibia), Dr Adeniyi Fasasi (Nigeria), Prof Paul Buah-Bassuah, Dr Mourad Zhagal (Tunisia), Dr Ndumiso Cingo,(South Africa), Dr Jean-Marie Ndjaka (Cameroon) and Prof Hubertus von Bergmann (South Africa). Two Diaspora representatives sit on the ALC Board. These are Prof Sekazi Mtingwa (MIT, USA) and Dr James Uhomoibhi (University of Ulster, Ireland).
The ALC is managed by the CSIR National Laser Centre, one of the key nodes.
For further information, please contact us.
Documents of importance may be viewed in the document repository.
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