This is Scientific Americans 60 Second Science. I'm Steve Mursky.

In a couple of decades from now Africa is going to be the powerhouse of human capital,

globally, the youngest continent in terms of demography.

Terry Zumahun, he's the president and CEO

of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences.

He spoke with Scientific American editor-in-chief Marriott

de Christina, who recorded these comments

at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos.

Africa is going to be the global hub for science discoveries in this century.

And how to make this happen?

It's going to take three things in my view.

Number one, we've got a massive pool of untapped scientific talent, which a wave of

youngsters which are coming. What we need to do is to provide these young people, young people with the ecosystem

within which they can flourish as great scientists and successful scientists.

Ecosystem meaning training, give them the right training,

give them research infrastructure for them to be able to come up as a great scientist. So second thing this is going to take is a conducive

policy environment. Political leaders, industry leaders who must join forces to come up with policies which are conducive for

science in Africa. And lastly, global collaboration around science. We need the

American continent, the European continent, all continents

to join forces around Africa to collaborate effectively researchers from the West and Africa to collaborate around some of the

grand challenges which necessitated breakthrough research.

For Scientific Americans 60 Second Science, I'm Steve Mursky.

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