Gender equality, climate change dominate conversation during Canadian High commissioner’s visit to AIMS Rwanda.

The importance of mitigating climate change with the help of mathematical sciences dominated the conversation during the visit of the Canadian High Commissioner Sara Hradecky to AIMS Rwanda during a town hall conversation with the AIMS Rwanda centre students.

The High Commissioner, who is also her country’s representative to Rwanda’s neighbours Kenya and Uganda, challenged the AIMS students to go ahead and implement their classroom learnings in the real world. “ It is one thing to be a mathematics genius like you are but another thing to go and use those skills to help solve some of the world’s major challenges like climate change,” she said. “In order for governments to respond to climate change they need specific data that enables them to respond to any possible impact regarding the ecosystem and this can be done using only mathematical models that help predict and possibly mitigate these. All this is possible with the right people and the right skills to analytically understand and predict these situations, “she added.

The high commissioner and the students also engaged in talk on Gender equality with focus on the need for more women is STEM-related fields where she cited the impact and importance of the AIMS Women In STEM Initiative, “I hope all of us have seen the previously untold story of the four women in hidden figures. This shows us that women are not limited and can do anything. It is encouraging that we are seeing AIMS try to engage more women in STEM,” she said.

AIMS Executive Vice President Dorothy Nyambi noted the importance of the collaboration between AIMS and the Canadian government citing it as the first government to ever believe in the vision of Africa’s next Einstein: “the Canadian government is a great partner as it was the first government to fund the AIMS initiative,” she said.

The high commissioner also toured the AIMS center noting the world class facilities and promised that the Canadian government will continue to support the work of the institute.