Neil Turok at TED

Neil Turok, a high energy physicist originally from South Africa, is a researcher in Cambridge, and is probably most famous for his models of the Ekpyrotic and cyclic universes. He was also instrumental in setting up AIMS - the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences which aims to nurture the brightest minds in Africa as a way forward in finding solutions for the many problems on the continent, from within - all the hopes of the developed world putting Africa back on its feet seem to be having little effect.

On top of the above achievements he this year won one of the three TED prizes and in his speech, talks here about the current situation at AIMS and his hopes for the future, hopes for 15 more AIMS across the continent and hopes to find the next Einstein in Africa. It's a powerful idea and it's clearly this sort of motivation which is needed to give people the chance to make a difference.