US-Africa Collaborative Research Network in Mathematical Sciences

This NSF award provides support for a US-Africa Collaborative Research Network (CRN) with the primary goal to improve the human infrastructure in mathematical sciences in both the US and Sub-Saharan Africa, especially among underrepresented groups. It builds on the successful Masamu Program, developed by the Southern Africa Mathematical Sciences Association (SAMSA) with the assistance of the National Science Foundation in 2010 to enhance research in mathematical sciences and related areas through promotion of international research collaboration. The CRN consists of 82 research mathematicians (43 Sub-Saharan Africa, 29 US, and remaining 10 from Canada, China, and Europe) from 46 colleges and universities and research laboratories/centers/institutes, forming 3 research groups in Pure Mathematics and 4 research groups in Applied Mathematics. Each research group is subdivided into research teams consisting of senior research mathematicians, early career faculty, students, and postdoctoral researchers. Each research team includes both US and African participants. African researchers work on research areas that overlap with American research areas, but interestingly use different techniques and address different questions. This award therefore provides an opportunity for CRN to broaden the spectrum of questions to be studied and of methods/approaches for answering these questions, resulting in increased research activity and productivity for participating US researchers. Solutions to the research questions being studied by these teams have important applications in pure and applied mathematics, industry, government, and in society in general. In particular, solutions to these mathematics questions have applications in national security, network coverage, surveillance, transportation, finance, and statistics. Solutions to these questions also advance understanding of the spread of diseases and biodiversity, which have important policy implications as demonstrated by the COVID-19 crisis. The study of tumor growth, cell motility, and DNA structure have significant medical applications, and mathematical models involving climate data will provide accurate predictions of the impacts of climate change on future human and animal behavior and their interactions.

The CRN forms 3 research groups in Pure Mathematics (Algebra and Geometry; Analysis and Topology; and Discrete Mathematics (Graph Theory, Coding Theory, and Information Theory)) and 4 research groups in Applied Mathematics (Mathematical Biology and Biomathematics; Climate Change and Impacts; Mathematics of Finance and Statistics; and Biostatistics and Data Science). A key component of the Masamu Program is the Masamu Advanced Study Institute (MASI) and Workshop Series in mathematical sciences and related areas, which provides a platform for these collaborations. SAMSA holds a 4-day international research conference during Thanksgiving week each year, and Masamu Program runs a 10-day MASI that overlaps with the conference period. US-Africa CRN members thus take advantage of this gathering and participate in the SAMSA conference, MASI, and workshops to meet face-to-face, work on research problems, plan research activities for the subsequent year, and present their research findings at the conference. This NSF award provides support for US faculty, students, and postdocs to attend MASI each year. This enables the network to produce high quality new PhDs in the US and Sub-Saharan Africa, high quality joint research publications, and long-term US-Africa research partnerships consisting of researchers from diverse backgrounds. This will have long-lasting impacts on research collaboration and human infrastructure in the US and Sub-Saharan Africa in mathematical sciences.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.