August 2020
PhD students can benefit from non-academic mentors’ outside perspectives
A mentor is a professional who acclimates a protégé into a profession. In the Bottegas of Renaissance Florence, upstart Leonardo Da Vinci pulverized Tuscan stone and collected eggs to make tempera for mentor Andrea del Verrocchio, who might allow Da Vinci to assist Michelangelo with his paintings. Although this model was adopted by the research laboratories of the Enlightenment […]
Africa’s research ecosystem needs a culture of mentoring
Sub-Saharan Africa faces a range of development challenges, including high population growth, poverty, food insecurity, and poor health. There is a clear need for qualified and skilled researchers to tackle these issues. But there is also a scarcity. For instance, Sub-Saharan Africa contributes less than 1% to global research output despite accounting for 13.5% of the global population. This asymmetry calls for a response that builds […]