Dr. F. Saouma attended the 5th African School on Electronic Structure Methods and Applications held at Addis Ababa Science & Technology University (AASTU)-Ethiopia from 22nd October – 2nd November, 2018http://indico.ictp.it/event/8354/.The School drew participants from fourteen (14) African states including (Kenya, South Africa, Congo-Bravaville, Congo-Kinshasha, Benin, Rwanda, Nigeria, Togo, Cameroon, Zambia, Burundi, Sudan, Ghana and Ethiopia). Notable speakers were Richard Martins (Stanford University), George Amolo (TUK, Kenya), M. Casida (University Grenoble Alpes), M. Gatti (Palaiseau, France), E. Luijten (Northwestern University), A. Marini (ISM, Italy), S. Narasimhan (JNCASR, India), S. Scandolo (ICTP, Italy), N. Seriani (ICTP, Italy) among others.

The topics covered included:

• Electronic structure theory;
• Density functional theory (DFT) and functionals;
  Phonons;
• Magnetism;
• Enhanced sampling methods in molecular dynamics
• Ab-initio molecular dynamics;
• Optical spectroscopies

This event was an eye opener to me on the powerful nature of DFT as a theoretical tool in material characterization of electronic properties. It has also opened window of opportunities for future collaborative work with researchers both locally in Kenya, in the African continent and beyond.