Research development in Africa

Summaries of my work in Africa

• Live and remote: Nairobi workshops in algebraic geometry, EMS Magazine, June 2022 (with Chiara Bonadiman, Jared Ongaro, Diletta Martinelli)
• Developing mathematics in East Africa, Newsletter of the London Mathematical Society, July 2018

In memoriam Marco Garuti

News

• 2026 School on Arithmetic, Geometry and Algorithms, coordinated by AMU-CIMPA-CoRE-Math-ICTP-ISP, 17-28 Aug 2026, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
• 2nd African-Nordic Conference in Mathematics, 11-14 August 2026, Arusha, Tanzania
• 2026 Austria – Uganda workshop on Algebra and Geometry
• I have been asked to serve on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the nascent China-Africa Mathematics Center
• I am the coordinator for the University of Vienna in the Guild-ARUA Cluster of Research Excellence CORE-Math
• I coordinate the Vienna African Mathematics Scholarships project
• Africa-Uninet project Uganda-Austria Collaboration in Algebra and Geometry, October 2024 – September 2026, with colleagues at TU Graz, Makerere, Busitema, Kabale and Kyambogo Universities

Recent events

• I was Vice-Chair and then Chair of the Committee for Developing Countries, European Mathematical Society (EMS CDC) during 2023-2025
• Nairobi workshop in Algebraic Geometry: the 10th Anniversary Workshop, 11-19 September, Nairobi, Kenya
• Austria-Uganda workshop on geometry and representation theory, July 2025
• Senior Learning Seminar in Algebraic Geometry: this was a series of zoom lectures throughout March 2025 on advanced topics in algebraic geometry
  • Topics: Review of affine algebraic geometry, Review of projective algebraic geometry, Sheaves of regular functions (some more formal notes on regular functions), sheaves of modules in algebraic geometry, (some basic exercises on sheaves), cohomology of sheaves, divisors and differentials
• I taught Combinatorics at AIMS South Africa in February 2025. I also gave some lectures at University of Stellenbosch as a guest of NiTheCS
• Three events in summer/autumn 2024, where I was only tangentially involved, but I was very happy that they happened:
  • Inaugural African Women Algebra Workshop, Kabale University, Uganda 1-6 July 2024
  • Training school in Algebraic Geometry and Arithmetics, Kigali, Rwanda, 19 – 30 August 2024
  • Eastern Africa Algebra Research Group Workshop, Makerere University, Uganda, 25 – 29 November 2024
• I was the main International Organiser of the 2024 EAUMP-ICTP School on the Mathematics of AI, in collaboration with AMU, CIMPA and ISP
• I was one of the organisers of a Minisymposium Shared Horizons: collaborations between Europe and the Global South at the ECM in Sevilla, July 2024
• I was an invited keynote speaker at the 2024 Annual Conference of the Nigerian Mathematical Society
• We ran a remote Learning Seminar in Algebraic Geometry
• I was one of the organisers of a workshop Topology for Tomorrow at Siyakhula: Growing Mathematics in Africa, 17-22 March 2024, AIMS, Muizenberg, South Africa
• I was an Invited Speaker at the African-Nordic Conference on Mathematics at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, 1-4 August 2023
• I gave two remote lectures at the Perspective Mathematical School in Algebra and Geometry, University of Yaounde, Cameroon, 24-26 July 2023
• I taught at the 2023 EAUMP-ICTP School on Enumerative Combinatorics in Arusha, Tanzania, 10-28 July 2023
• We organised a Workshop on Algebra, Topology, and Applications at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, 3-7 July 2023
• I spoke at a workshop Mathematics building partnerships with Africa, Politechnico di Torino, 12 June 2023
• I was one of the speakers at a symposium Establishing Europe-Africa academic collaborations at the University of Amsterdam, 1 June 2023

Some partner institutions

• Committee for Developing Countries of the European Mathematical Society
• African Women in Algebra, where I am on the advisory board
• Department of Mathematics, University of Nairobi
• Eastern Africa Universities Mathematics Programme (EAUMP)
  • Eastern Africa Algebra Research Group
• AIMS South Africa, Muizenberg, South Africa
  • I was a member of the AIMS-SA Council 2014-2022
• Department of Mathematics and Applied Statistics, Maseno University, Kenya
• African Maths Initiative and SAMI
  • I am one of the Trustees of SAMI
• Department of Mathematics, University of Rwanda
• Department of Mathematics, Makerere University, Uganda 
• Department of Mathematics, University of Zambia
• Department of Mathematics, University of Dar es Salaam
• Department of Mathematics, University of Ibadan
• MARM: Mentoring African Research in Mathematics by the London Mathematical Society
  • MARM Board

Successful grant applications in support of mathematics in Africa

• EUR40000, Africa-Uninet project Uganda-Austria Collaboration in Algebra and Geometry, 2024 – 2026
• £170,892, EPSRC GCRF Grant for Capacity building in Africa via technology-driven research in algebraic and arithmetic geometry, also known as the Abram Gannibal Project, 2019-2022
• £42,452, Internal HEFCE Global Challenges Research Fund Grant 2018, University of Oxford, in support of research into the use of big data in agriculture
• £60,970, EPSRC Global Challenges Research Fund Institutional Sponsorship Funding 2016, University of Oxford, in support of research in quantitative corruption analysis
• £10,000, LMS MARM Mentoring Scheme grant, 2014-2016, in support of collaboration with the Geometry group, Department of Mathematics, University of Nairobi, Kenya
• £10,000, LMS MARM Mentoring Scheme grant, 2010-2012, in support of collaboration with the Department of Mathematics and Applied Statistics, Maseno University, Kenya

Some events I helped to organize

• Nairobi Workshops on Algebraic Geometry since 2015, University of Nairobi, Kenya (lead International Organizer)
• EAUMP Summer Schools (International Organizer)
  • 2025 ICTP-EAUMP School on Real and Harmonic Analysis, in Collaboration with AMU, CIMPA and ISP, Kigali, Rwanda, July 2025
  • 2024 EAUMP-ICTP School on the Mathematics of AI, in Collaboration with AMU, CIMPA and ISP, at Makerere University, Uganda, July 2024
  • 2023 EAUMP-ICTP School on Enumerative Combinatorics, in Collaboration with AMU, CIMPA and ISP, Arusha Technical College, 10-28 July 2023
  • 2022 ICTP – EAUMP Summer School on Mathematical Programming and Algorithms – an African Mathematical School, University of Nairobi, July 2022
  • 2021 ICTP – EAUMP Summer School Topics in Concrete Mathematics, remote school, August 2021
  • 2019 ICTP – EAUMP Summer School on Algebric Topology and its Applications, Makerere University, 15 July – 2 August 2019
  • 2018 EAUMP -ICTP School and Workshop on Homological Methods in Algebra and Geometry, University of Dar es Salaam, 9-28 July 2018
  • 2017 ICTP-EAUMP School on Modern Functional Analysis, University of Nairobi, 18 June – 7 July 2017
  • 2016 EAUMP Summer School on Number Theory, University of Rwanda, 4-22 July 2016.
  • 2015 EAUMP Summer School on Experimental Pure Mathematics, Makerere University, Uganda, 6-23 July 2015.
  • 2014 EAUMP Summer School on Representation Theory, Arusha Technical College, Arusha, Tanzania, 7-26 July 2014.
  • 2013 East African School on Applicable Algebraic Geometry, Bandari College, Mombasa, Kenya from 6-28 July 2013.
• 3rd EAUMP Conference, 26-28 October 2016, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda (International Scientific Committee member)
• Meetings at Strathmore University
  • 4th Strathmore International Mathematics Conference, 19-23 June 2017, Strathmore University, Nairobi, Kenya (External Scientific Committee member)
  • 3rd Strathmore International Mathematics Conference, 3-7 August 2015, Strathmore University, Nairobi, Kenya (Scientific Committee member)
  • 2nd Strathmore International Mathematics Conference, 12-16 August 2013, Strathmore University, Nairobi, Kenya (Scientific Committee member)
  • Strathmore International Mathematics Research Meeting, 23-27 July 2012, Strathmore University, Nairobi, Kenya (lead International Organizer of pure mathematics session)
  • First international conference in mathematical sciences, 18-20 August 2011, Strathmore University, Nairobi, Kenya (Organizer of Special Session) 
• Workshop in Algebra and Applications, 2-6 April 2017, Livingstone, Zambia (lead Organizer) 

Collaborations with African mathematicians

• Nsibiet E. Udo, Praise Adeyemo and Balázs Szendrői, with an appendix by Stavros Argyrios Papadakis, Ideals, representations and a symmetrised Bernoulli triangle, Beitrage Alg Geom.
• Geoffrey Mboya and Balázs Szendrői, On K3 fibred Calabi-Yau threefolds in weighted scrolls, Rendiconti del Circolo Matematico di Palermo.
• Praise Adeyemo and Balázs Szendrői, Refined Ehrhart series and bigraded rings, Studia Sci. Math. Hung 60, 97-108.
• Ben Davison, Jared Ongaro and Balázs Szendrői, Enumerating coloured partitions in 2 and 3 dimensions, Math. Proc. Cam. Phil. Soc. 169 (2020) 479-505.

Other publications

• Danny Parsons, David Stern, Balázs Szendrői and Elizabeth David-Barrett, Interdisciplinary data workshops: Combining Statistical Consultancy Training with Practitioner Data Literacy. In: Burrill, G.F., de Oliveria Souza, L., Reston, E. (eds) Research on Reasoning with Data and Statistical Thinking: International Perspectives. Advances in Mathematics Education. Springer, 2023
• Ágnes Czibik, Elizabeth Dávid-Barrett, Mihály Fazekas, Danny Parsons, David Stern, Roger Stern and Balázs Szendrői: Assessing Tanzania’s National Procurement Data Infrastructure, policy paper, Government Transparency Institute, 2017
• Martin Singull, Balázs Szendrői and Antonella Zanna, Evaluation Report of the Eastern Africa Universities Mathematics Programme, technical report, 2017