Atangana, originally from Cameroon, is one of five young scientists to receive the award for the first time in a ceremony which took place on 19 June 2023 at Unesco’s headquarters in Paris, France. 

Each winner received a medal and $50,000 in prize money. According to the statement issued by UFS, the prize was established in 2021 in partnership with Saudi Arabia’s Al–Fozan Foundation with the aim to strengthen STEM research, STEM education and international cooperation to confront the global challenges addressed by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

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Cameroon's Professor Abdon Atangana received the prestigious UNESCO-Al Fozan International prize for the promotion of young scientists in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. This was on June 19th, 2023 and the headquarters of UNESCO in Paris. pic.twitter.com/p1uFMjkE1H

— MD. Ngoundi (@ivantresor67) July 1, 2023

According to Unesco’s website, the prize is awarded every two years to five laureates from the five geographic regions of Unesco (Africa, Arab states, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and North America and Latin America and the Caribbean), its purpose to encourage youth participation in STEM, in particular women and girls, so as to promote gender equality, scientific literacy and the choice of a scientific career.

After receiving the award, Atangana, who is the current chairperson of the African Mathematical Union Commission for Research and Innovations (AMU-CRIMS), said Africa was a temple of mathematics and that great mathematicians, including Euclid and Pythagoras, visited Africa. He questioned why many young talented Africans are now moving to the West to search for greener pastures instead of using their skills to develop the African continent. 

Prof Abdon Atangana, Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Institute for Groundwater Studies (IGS) at the UFS, was one of five young scientists who was awarded the first @UNESCO_AlFozan International Prize for the Promotion of Young Scientists in STEM.

— UFS (@UFSweb) July 6, 2023

“I thank God that today as an African born, I came to France for the first time not in search of the greener pastures, but because the work that I did in Africa with no support. I captured the global attention of researchers from all the fields of Science, Technology and Engineering, and Maths which is a clear indication that Africans can stay in Africa, work hard, evolve and develop the continent without additional support or compensation,” he said.

Atangana further vowed to stay in Africa, work very hard to pave the way, and lay a concrete foundation for the next generation.

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