IRTC Supporters

Professor Elvis Ngolle Ngolle and CTR Director Tom Smith

“I appreciate the creation of the International Research and Training Center in Cameroon. This will have a great effect in the results of research in Central Africa and also enable African students to upgrade their research and training in foreign Universities….I wish to assure you of our support to see to it that African students and especially Cameroonian students do benefit from such an initiative.” Professor Elvis Ngolle Ngolle, Former Minister of Forestry and Wildlife, Republic of Cameroon

“I hereby wish to thank you for your decision to set up the said Center in Cameroon in a bid to facilitate interdisciplinary environmental, health and social science research in Central Africa….Consequently, I am seizing this opportunity to inform you that measures have already been taken to instruct all our State Universities on actions to be undertaken with a view to the materialisation of this interesting project.”
Professor Jacques Fame Ndongo, Minister of Higher Education, Republic of Cameroon

“The establishment of a Central African IRTC is an excellent opportunity to strengthen our existing laboratory training and career development capabilities.”
J.J. Muyembe, Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale, Ministry of Health, Democratic Republic of Congo

“The IRTC could become part of a more comprehensive plan of action to rectify Africa’s pervasive problems such as environmental degradation.”
John B. Flynn, USAID

“Building institutions like the International Research and Training Center can help us meet the environmental challenges of the coming decade.”
Dr. Paulette Bisseck, Foundation for Environment and Development in Cameroon

“Such a center, focusing on a range of scientific topics related to the environment and on the medical and social sciences would provide much needed resources, not only to Cameroon and the surrounding countries of the of the Congo Basin, but to Africa more generally….IRTC would be a wonderful complement to the West African Research Center (WARC), located in Dakar, Senegal.”
Dr. Jennifer J. Yanco, U.S. Director, West African Research Association

“It's time that industrialized nations stop contributing to the brain drain by only training African students abroad and engage in permanent on-the-ground efforts in Africa - IRTCs represent critical beachheads that will help Africans solve their own health and environmental challenges in their own countries...”
Tom Smith, Center for Tropical Research, UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability