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Materials research in Africa

Rising from the Falls

Nature Materials volume 11, pages 187–188 (2012)Cite this article

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Materials science and technology could offer the opportunity to address vital needs of African people. But improving the infrastructure for science education and dissemination of knowledge is the first step to take.

In this context, Wole Soboyejo (Princeton University, USA) reported a systematic approach to evaluate the mechanical properties and porosity of clay ceramics as a function of its constituent materials (that is, sawdust and clay). The final goal is to obtain optimized compositions for water-purification filters4.

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Figure 1

© FEDERICO ROSEI

Figure 2: Thermal modulation of the real part of the refractive index of a ∼400 nm coating of VO2 grown by laser ablation on a quartz substrate deduced from ellipsometry measurements at seven temperatures in the range 30–85 °C.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mohamed Chaker and Federico Rosei are at the INRS Center for Energy, Materials and Telecommunications, Varennes, Quebec J3X 1S2, Canada,

    Mohamed Chaker & Federico Rosei

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  1. Mohamed Chaker
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  2. Federico Rosei
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Correspondence to Mohamed Chaker or Federico Rosei.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Chaker, M., Rosei, F. Rising from the Falls. Nature Mater 11, 187–188 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3262

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