非洲：未来全球的科技中心

“In a couple of decades from now Africa is going to be the powerhouse of human capital globally—the youngest continent in terms of young demography.”

“在未来的几十年里，非洲将成为全球人力资本的动力源泉——从年轻人口统计学上讲，非洲是最年轻的大陆。”

Thierry Zomahoun. He’s the President and CEO of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences. He spoke with Scientific American Editor in Chief Mariette DiChristina, who recorded these comments, at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos.

Thierry Zomahoun是非洲数学科学研究所的总裁兼首席执行官。在最近的达沃斯世界经济论坛上，他与科学美国人的主编Mariette DiChristina交谈时，主编记录了这些评论。

“Africa is…going to be the global hub for science discoveries in this century. How to make this happen is going to take three things in my view. Number one, we’ve got a massive view of untapped scientific talent, a wave of youngsters are coming. What we need to do is to provide these young people with the equal system within which they can flourish as great scientists and successful scientists. Equal system meaning training, give them the right training, give them research infrastructure for them to be able to come up as a great scientist.

“非洲将成为本世纪科学发现的全球中心。在我看来，如何实现这一目标需要三件事。第一，我们对未开发出来的科学人才有着巨大的期望，一批年轻人即将成长。我们需要做的是，为这些年轻人提供平等的体系，使他们能够发展成为伟大的、成功的科学家。平等的系统意味着培训，为他们带去正确的培训，给他们提供研究基础设施，使他们能够成为一名伟大的科学家。

“So, second thing this is going to take is a conducive policy environment. Political leaders, industry leaders must join forces to come up with policies which are conducive for science in Africa.

“所以，第二件事就是，这必须在一个有利的政策环境下进行。政治领导人，行业领导者必须联合起来，制定有利于非洲科学的政策。”

“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 necessitate breakthrough research.”

“最后，全球进行科学合作。这就需要美洲大陆、欧洲大陆、所有的大陆都联合起来，围绕非洲进行有效的合作——来自西方和非洲的研究人员围绕一些需要突破性研究的重大挑战展开合作。”