As anyone who spends a day at an APS conference can tell you, physics is a global affair. I’ve heard talks by Koreans, Japanese, Germans, Australians and Americans today (among others). But one region which is consistently underrepresented at the APS is Africa.

I dropped in on a session about physics in Africa and heard a case study: Senegal. Ndeye Arame Boye-Faye, a physicist at the University Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar laid out the stats for physics in the country, and it became immediately clear that the problem (as is so often is the case) comes down to money. Senegal’s GDP is a meager US$13.9 billion, and of that just .05% (around US$7 million) goes to research. The nation’s main grants system, known as Fonds d’Impulsion de la Recherché Scientifique et Technique (FIRST), doles out US$700,000 in grants each year. That’s right, $700,000 for the entire country—there are single labs in the West that can suck up a grant that size.

Boye-Faye was quite low-key about it all: “You can see that it’s not a very big budget,” she said modestly. She hopes that the country can get a little help from France and other developed nations to boost its research efforts.

As anyone who spends a day at an APS conference can tell you, physics is a global affair. I’ve heard talks by Koreans, Japanese, Germans, Australians and Americans today (among others). But one region which is consistently underrepresented at the APS is Africa.

I dropped in on a session about physics in Africa and heard a case study: Senegal. Ndeye Arame Boye-Faye, a physicist at the University Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar laid out the stats for physics in the country, and it became immediately clear that the problem (as is so often is the case) comes down to money. Senegal’s GDP is a meager US$13.9 billion, and of that just .05% (around US$7 million) goes to research. The nation’s main grants system, known as Fonds d’Impulsion de la Recherché Scientifique et Technique (FIRST), doles out US$700,000 in grants each year. That’s right, $700,000 for the entire country—there are single labs in the West that can suck up a grant that size.

Boye-Faye was quite low-key about it all: “You can see that it’s not a very big budget,” she said modestly. She hopes that the country can get a little help from France and other developed nations to boost its research efforts.