Winners of the African Students’ Competition on the Benefits of Nuclear Sciences

In the first of its kind event, the Division for Africa, IAEA, launched a competition in March 2023 for African students with the objective to enhance awareness of the role of nuclear technology in addressing the different issues that Africa faces and to bring the attention of the young people to the role that they can play in enhancing socioeconomic development in their countries.

Inputs from seventy teams (200 students) from several secondary schools and universities were received from several Member States in Africa. Twenty-six students representing nine teams were selected as the competition winners and acknowledged for their outstanding submissions to the competition.

The side event introduced the winners of the students’ competition to present to a wider audience their selected work. The event included the distribution of award certificates to the students’ winners. They were awarded a scientific tour during the week of the IAEA General Conference. Seven teams including 19 students from Benin, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, and South Africa were able to attend this ceremony and receive their certificates.

The event was opened by the IAEA Director General Mr Rafael Mariano Grossi. Mr Shaukat Abdulrazak, Director of the IAEA TC Division for Africa, provided welcome remarks. The opening session also included a statement from HE Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda, Minister of Health, Malawi and Ms Dominique Mouillot, WiN Global President. Mr Hua Liu, IAEA Deputy Director General, Head of the Department of Technical Cooperation made the closing remarks. The event was moderated by Mr Mickel Edwerd, Section Head in the Division for Africa.

Amal Elrefaei, PMO, TCAF