Math Professor Nancy Neudauer Receives Second Fulbright Award to Teach in Africa

Pacific University Mathematics associate professor Nancy Neudauer has received her second Fulbright Specialist Award in as many years to advance math education in Africa. Neudauer departed for Tanzania earlier this month, where she will teach a course called Designs, Graphs and Matroids, and will help set up a new African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) through the Next Einstein Initiative. She will also teach the course in Ghana. The grant comes following a 2013 grant that resulted in Neudauer's successful trip to South Africa last December in which she taught matroids to AIMS students.

The Next Einstein Initiative (NEI) seeks to unlock and nurture scientific and technical talent across Africa. This plan is developed in the context of growing African economic, social, and political integration. NEI is a core program of AIMS and specifically involves the establishment and operation of a network of fifteen centers of excellence across Africa focused on the teaching of mathematical sciences to African university graduates. AIMS-NEI will recruit outstanding graduates from all over Africa to learn math and science together. As demonstrated by AIMS–South Africa, their shared passion for science will bridge cultural and national divides and build a joint commitment to an improved future for Africa.