ICTP Connections: Ethiopia

During its more than 50 year history, ICTP has built strong connections with thousands of scientists, especially those in disadvantaged countries. In order to capture its far-reaching impact throughout the developing world, ICTP commissioned Trieste filmmaker Nicole Leghissa to make a documentary about these connections.

Leghissa spent two months in 2014 travelling around the world to explore how the lives of scientists have been positively impacted by ICTP, and how they in turn are using their experiences to build scientific capacity in their home countries. The resulting documentary, "From Theory to Reality", highlights the success stories of six scientists in six countries.

We are revisiting these stories because they are a reminder that ICTP's impact on scientific research in the developing world remains as relevant as ever. We have created separate features for each of the six scientists who appear in the documentary. Here, we highlight Yohannes Anshebo Teketel, full professor of physical chemistry and head of research at the Department of Chemistry of Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. Since 1995, ICTP has supported his research through its Associateship programme. Teketel also participated in ICTP's Training and Research in Italian Laboratories (TRIL) programme, spending nine months working at the National Research Council (CNR) in Bologna, Italy.

Teketel now runs a materials science laboratory at Addis Ababa University, working on the construction and characterisation of solar cells. In his laboratory, his students not only do research and experiments, but they also get the experience necessary to become highly-skilled scientists.