The one-year fellowship is a unique position intended for new and recent PhDs who are African nationals working in the areas of mathematical sciences or fundamental theoretical physics. The goal of this initiative is to support the careers of young researchers who have a commitment to advance science in Africa.

 Ali Mahmoud will join us from the University of Ottawa where he recently completed another postdoc. During his PhD studies at the University of Waterloo, he applied combinatorial methods to questions arising in quantum field theory, a direction he hopes to refine in the coming year.

“Surprisingly, there are plenty of counting problems in physics, and that's where my research is relevant. I'm very happy, and proud, to receive this postdoctoral fellowship from Fields, AIMS, and Perimeter, as it will allow me to achieve more results in this direction,” he says.

Kennedy Obinna Idu, who completed his PhD thesis in Geometric Measure Theory and Calculus of Variations at the University of Pisa, will split his time between the Fields Institute in Toronto and the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo.

“One of my motivating factors has been to go where the math is made, so I can have a chance to make it. You have to be where the results are produced. You may not produce them there, but such exposure creates that possibility in you and you can carry that possibility anywhere and one day it can click and work anywhere,” Dr. Idu says.

Dr. Idu’s research interests led him to Italy, which he chose in order to work under PhD advisor, Prof. Giovanni Alberti. He says he was also drawn to Pisa because of its rich mathematical tradition and owing to its proximity to the Scuola Normale, home to Fields Medal winner, Alessio Figalli. “If we need to win a Fields medal for Africa, we need to do the right math,” he explains.

The notion of the “right math” is something that will hopefully change with the expansion of opportunities for gifted young mathematicians like this year’s fellowship recipients. Fields, in conjunction with AIMS and Perimeter, is thrilled to be able to provide some of the resources that will help them achieve their goals.

“The Fields Institute is delighted to welcome Ali Mahmoud and Kennedy Idu as postdoctoral fellows. The AIMS-Fields-Perimeter postdoctoral fellowship program is a way to build mathematical contacts between Canada and the continent of Africa, for our mutual benefit. Kennedy and Ali will be fine ambassadors in both directions,” says Fields Deputy Directory Deirdre Haskell.