The Road To The Ultimate Ethiopian Physical Society (1987-2020)
Abebe Kebede, Department of Physics, NC A&T State University
Copyright ©2008: Don’t copy or quote any of these documents without this Author’s permission

The first phrases of in reference to the “Ethiopian Physical Society and the African Physical Society was at MMM meeting in Sandiego California in 1987. The people that were present was Dr. Abebe Kebede, then graduate student at Temple University and Dr. Tessema G. Xavier, of Clemson University.  Our conversations were casual because we were not in a position to determine which way to go. The second wave of information exchange came under a guise of the African Physical So ciety, during the first generation email exchanges, at that time the system works on a platform Bitnet. There was actually an explosion of discussions among Ethiopians on development and politics. My experience in 1990-1995 in connecting myself with the Ethiopian community, and using every opportunity to push the gathering to focus more development.

The first Ethiopian mass email communication was named CLEO, that later evolved into  EEDN and Ethiolist. I am proud to say that I was among the first one hundred users of the platform. At about the same time a user name McGee began flooding the network by creating a large number of soc.culture social networking. At that time lots of Africans particularly from South Africa were heavily participating in this social network. The idea of establishing the African Physical Society began in 1990.  There were lost of young people who were exited about the idea.  I know at the outset that establishing huge organizations such as this and the Ethiopian Physical Society is challenging, for two reasons. First there is really no  immediate gain for me personally and those who are participating to formulate this society, second the situation of Ethiopia academics was oriented, still is more towards political issues, and more inclined to form political organizations, than a futuristic Ethiopian Physical Society.  After the 1987 conversation about the formation of Ethiopian Physical Society, our next conversation was in 1999 at the Los Angeles APS March meeting, where more people participated, the participants include Dr Dereje Seifu (Morgan State), Daniel Tekeleab (Clemson University), Mesfin Tsige (Case Western University), Abebe Kebede (North Carolina A&T State University), and G.X. Tessema (Clemson University). and we formulated what we called the Los Angeles Declaration

Los Angeles Declaration for Ethiopian Physics of Materials Research Group Declaration

On March 18,1998, a group of Ethiopian scientists in the area of condensed matter physics met at the Los Angeles Convention Center, during the March 98 APS meeting. The group include Dereje Seifu (Morgan State), Daniel Tekeleab (Clemson University), Mesfin (Case Western University), Abebe Kebede (North Carolina A&T State University), and G.X. Tessema (Clemson University). Several issues were raised how better the group can serve physics research in the US and Africa. In particular, the role of Ethiopian Scientists in Material Physics is significant as can be seen from the number of publications and abstracts submitted each year. The group conducted an informal discussion on the ways and means of establishing African Physical Society, Africa Physics Interest Group, Materials Physics Group. The overall goals of the organization to be established will develop a mechanism of exchange of ideas in research and education, to contribute to physics research. The group agreed in principle that the long term goals of the organization can only be achieved if there are grass root activities from the scientific community. One such grass root group will undertake the following activities
Identify a common problem for experimental and theoretical research
Develop joint research and education programs in collaboration with colleagues from Ethiopian institutions in Ethiopia

Statement of Declaration

Ethiopian Physics of Materials Group is established to identify a common problem for experimental and theoretical research. The group will work towards fostering collaborative research and education among ethiopian condensed matter physicists around the world and in Ethiopia.

Beginning 1998 we began meeting as much as the opportunity arises. In 1999 for the first time a large number of Ethiopians gathered in Atlanta for the APS Millennium Conference. We were large enough to even categorize ourselves as faculty member and PhD candidates. My list include

Faculty members: Mesgun Sebhatu (Winthrop University), Tilahun Ineyew (LBCC), Abebe Kebede (NC A&T State University). Dereje Seifu (Morgan State University). G.X. Tessema (Clemson University). Moges Mochena,  (Florida A&M University and National High Magnetic Field Laboratory), Solomon Bililign (NC A&T State University)
PhD. Candidates: Mesfin Tsigie (Case Western University), Daniel Tekeleab (Clemson University), Alem Teklu (Louisiana State University), Nigussie Tirfessa (Ohio State University), Address Mohammed (Georgia Institute of Technology)

These meetings continued on until today at the APS Meeting, and NSBP meetings.  The great thing about these meetings are the fact that they are totally informal.  People work better with no strings attached.   Those of us who want to champion the cause have done something of importance despite such loose relationships.  This is not to say there are no fundamental differences.  The differences are on the one hand the need for organization and the delay to get it, on the other hand diametrically opposite view that  the participation of Ethiopians to develop their country is not a necessary condition. Ethiopia can develop with or without Ethiopians, this is not say we should remove Ethiopia’s, we can provide the platform so that they can participate if they choose too. In the later case there is a total paradigm shift in the approach to formulate the Ethiopian Physical Society, that is to create an online community where the participants are given the opportunity to float their idea, seek for collaborators.

This discussions and communications were possible on account of  transportation and the internet. There was a feeling at least on my part that there a need for making sure that  Ethiopia is known for its productive scientists.   Great ideas came out of these gatherings, however the major weakness was, still true now, that we don’t follow our ideas through. Once the meeting is over we simply abandon our ideas only to repeat them the following year.   The need for a community was critical because many graduate students were coming out of Ethiopia to study in Europe, Canada, Australia, and USA. There must be a way to guide these budding scientists. Our job should be to make sure that they have a better chance to secure positions, and to become contributing members of the Ethiopian community, in the field their choice.  These small gatherings provide only  encouragement to those who want to see a strong scientific community. Which means  there must be a way to get more participants. With this in mind we launched the first web sites in 1994. These web sites were, still are, the poor man’s solutions to the most difficult problems.  Since the physics community is small at the outset we realized that we need to have a larger community for which we can draw ideas about the direction of scientific research in Ethiopia and the academic/professional life of the new generation Ethiopian scientists.  In order to address this issues we created several discipline based networks of all scientific fields. While developing the physics context the Ethiopian scientific Network is now emerging as a unique information resources for Ethiopia.

Measurement of accomplishments

Organization: Currently there are two parallel and compatible efforts. The Ethiopian Physical Society is a registered organization in North Carolina (EIN 80-0154286), and has been operational online since 1995.

EPS-Bylaws; The critical meeting was at the 2000 Minneapolis meeting, where only four people participated (Mesfin Tsige, Abebe Kebede, Dereje Seifu, and Tessema G. Xavier.  In this meeting major suggestions were put forward. Particularly the suggestion from Mesfin was the best. He said that we need to create a rewarding platform for the Ethiopian Physicist.  This then followed by a discussion on bylaws issues. Based on this meeting a draft bylaw appeared on the web in 2000.

Pushing the Ethiopian Physics Agenda in Other channels

Physics in Africa 2002 NSBP-Hosted by Alabama A&M university
Physics in Africa 2003 APS-Austin Texas
Physics in African 2008 NSBP (not initiated by my group)
Space Science in Ethiopia 2007

Participations

A member of the AAU physics department traveled to South Africa to attend the WCPSD. This is made possible by consulting APS and the conference organizers at Clark Atlanta University. Tessema and I worked on the issue. We have not done much except to assist in communicating the issues on  behalf of our colleague in Addis Ababa

2006  Cape Verde Space Science Workshop: This workshop was funded by US Government. Within the context of the workshop we were able to get two Ethiopian scientists to participate. This is not done out of pity, it is done because these two colleagues have stellar accomplishments in the field. The three of us used the opportunity to meet in the same ways as we meet here in the states

2007 Ethiopia Space Science Workshop: This is actually a major accomplishment by the Ethiopian Physical Society. To tell a long story short, this meeting was a meeting of Ethiopian physicists who came from many universities.  This is the model that should be followed

Ethiopian Physical Society: 2008-2020
(To appear Next)