In 2008 Turok became Executive Director of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and was replaced by Dr Robert Myers in 2019.
These centres intend to create institutions that are equipped with educational and scientific resources equivalent to the more developed continents, in order to fulfil Neil Turok's TED wish.
An earlier centre based at the African University of Science and Technology (AUST[7]) in Nigeria was known as AIMS Abuja[8][9] for a while.
In October 2015, a forum took place in Dakar under the auspices of UNESCO's International Basic Sciences Programme to take the project for a vast network of centres to the next stage.
[11] In addition to its academic programmes, AIMS South Africa has a research centre in interdisciplinary areas like cosmology, computing and finance (see below).
AIMS Senegal has developed an innovative teaching module for secondary school maths teachers and has partnered with local businesses to raise funds for the creation of a national contest on computer applications and mathematical modelling, with a focus on finding development-oriented solutions.
Scholars and lecturers from AIMS Ghana have equipped teachers at Biriwa Junior High School with an innovative teaching module.
Students from Africa can apply for full scholarships, including travel, board & lodging, tuition, and a stipend.
AIMS is committed to greater participation by women in science and a geographically representative student body from the African continent.
Visiting faculty have included David MacKay, Bernt Øksendal, David Aschman (Cape Town), Alan Beardon (Cambridge), Jordi Campos (Barcelona), Jesus Cerquides (Spanish National Research Council), Patrick Dorey (Durham), Pedro Ferreira (Oxford), Jan Govaerts (Leuven), Barry Green (Stellenbosch), Gordon Johnson (Houston), Dirk Laurie (Stellenbosch), Sanjoy Mahajan (MIT, Olin), Vincent Rivasseau (University of Paris), Bernd Schroers (Heriot-Watt), Robert de Mello Koch (Witwatersrand), Rob Beezer (University of Puget Sound), Jeff Sanders (United Nations University International Institute for Software Technology), and Tadashi Tokieda (Stanford).
AIMS, in conjunction with University of Stellenbosch, offers an honours degree in Mathematical Biology for South African students.
Regular public lectures[20] on a wide range of topics are offered by eminent scientists at the forefront of research in their field.
Among the published works, there are the project of Dr. Olivier Menoukeu Pamen (Alexander Humboldt Chair in Ghana) about Stochastic Mortality Modelling for Dependent Coupled Lives,[35] Dr. Alessandro Crimi about epidemiological study on prenatal care,[36] and during the COVID-19 pandemic Esther Opoku Gyasi and Prof. Francis Oduro about cost-effectiveness analysis of COVID-19 data from Ghana.