Dear Friends,
Welcome to a new academic year with Academics Without Borders!
We are excited to continue working with you this year on AWB’s fascinating projects. Your dedication, passion and support make a profound difference to so many students, faculty and staff at our partner institutions. We are grateful to have you in our AWB community!
We hope you enjoy reading about one of our high-impact AWB projects and the profile of an exceptional AWB volunteer in this Fall issue of the AWB Quarterly Update.
Best wishes for an excellent, productive and healthy year! Thank you for all your support in advancing global equity in higher education.
The AWB Team
If you are interested in learning more about AWB’s work, mission and projects, please see our website at www.awb-usf.org or contact us at [email protected]. Thank you for your interest and support!
Building Cancer Care Capacity in Kenya MSc in Medical Physics Launched at Meru University, Kenya
Partner Institution: Meru University of Science and Technology, public university in Kenya, established in 2013 with over 10,000 students
AWB Volunteers: Dr. Andrea Hemmerich, McMaster University & Dr. John Schreiner, Queen’s University
Challenge: Improve Medical Capacity for Cancer Diagnosis and Care
Kenya continues to face a growing burden of cancer, with patients often unable to access timely diagnosis or treatment due to a shortage of specialized professionals. Recognizing this critical gap, Meru University of Science and Technology (MUST) – in partnership with Academics Without Borders (AWB) and Medical Physicists for World Benefit (MPWB) – has developed the curriculum toward creating one of the country’s first Master of Science (MSc) in Medical Physics.
Until recently, no Kenyan university offered formal training in medical physics, a field essential to modern cancer diagnosis and radiotherapy. That changed in 2019, when Prof. Daniel Maitethia Memeu, a physics lecturer at MUST, reached out to AWB for support. What followed was a highly collaborative, multi-year effort to design a program tailored to Kenya’s unique healthcare needs.
“AWB’s support will have an astronomical impact,” says Prof. Memeu. “It means we’ll be able to train professionals who otherwise wouldn’t have had this opportunity—and reach patients who otherwise wouldn’t have been treated.”
