New Brilliant Minds, Op-ed

There are two brilliant scholars whom I enjoyed reading their intellectual paths as well as their contemporary contributions in these days in an ever changing world. Those are Dr. Moncef Al- Slaoui and Mr. Elon Reev Musk.

The first is a Moroccan figure appointed by the US President, during a press conference at the White House, as chief advisor to the "Warp Speed" program, which aims to develop a vaccine for the novel Coronavirus. 

Al- Slaoui, who was born in the city of Agadir, left Morocco to study medicine in France after obtaining the baccalaureate. Then, he settled in Belgium, where he worked on partial biology, and obtained his PhD from L'Université Libre de Bruxelles. Years later, he went to the United States to become a professor at Harvard University and then at Tufts University in Boston.

According to CNN, Al- Slaoui, was the former head of the vaccines department at the giant pharmaceutical company, Glasgow Smith Klein from 2015 to 2017. He also headed their global research and development processes for a long time.

In the field of ​​vaccines, Al- Slaoui contributed to developing vaccines to prevent gastroenteritis in children, cervical cancer, in addition to shingles...

Trump said that Al- Slaoui is a "globally recognized immunologist" and that he has contributed to the development of 14 new vaccines over 10 years, according to what is mentioned on the official website of the White House.

In addition to developing the Coronavirus vaccine, Al- Slaoui added that the "Warp Speed" program will also focus on developing drugs for people who are already infected with the Coronavirus, in addition to "improving" diagnostic tests for the disease.

The second character is the owner of SpaceX company, the young genius Mr. Elon Reev Musk. He is an extraordinary engineer and inventor. Born in South Africa in 1971, he moved to America and became a millionaire while he was stil in his 20s when he sold his startup Zip2 to Compaq Computers, and achieved more success by establishing X.com in 1999 and SpaceX in 2002, And Tesla Corporation in 2003.

Musk made headlines in 2012, when SpaceX launched a space rocket that sent the first commercial trip to the International Space Station, and in 2016 he filled his work exhibition with photos of the SolarCity, and cemented his presence as a main industrial leader after playing a role of the advisor on the first days of Trump’s presidency.

What is most notable for me is that at the age of ten, Elon started developing himself consecutively, and he started developing his ability to use computers and learn programming languages, and he indeed succeeded, as he made the first salable program - he designed a game he called Blaster.

In 1989, when he turned seventeen he moved to Canada to attend Queen University and escaped compulsory military service in the South African Army, and in 1992 he left Canada to study physics and business administration at the University of Pennsylvania.

He obtained a degree in economics and then completed his studies to obtain another Bachelor in Physics .... As I followed his career, I found that he ruled out enrolling his kids at American schools, because, in his view, they do not encourage skills or creativity in kids, so he began to design a special educational process for his children!

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, took off with two astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, on board and docked at the International Space Station, after it launched its first manned space trip, also the first manned space flight launched from American soil in about nine years.

US President Donald Trump personally attended the crew launch from only a few kilometers away. He said: "No one does that like us," considering that the achievements of the United States in the space field are "one of the most important things that we have done."

I was very much pleased by those two brilliant people, both of whom are of African descent, and one of them is from my dear country: Morocco. I listed here some of their paths to assure that nations can only evolve by encouraging their children to pursue scientific research in every possible smart way, and before that, the ‘virus of creativity, research and trust’ has to be injected in the hearts of all children and students without exception ...