Bubacarr Bah
{{short description|Gambian mathematician}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Bubacarr Bah
| alma_mater = {{ubl|University of the Gambia (BSc)| University of Oxford (MSc)| University of Edinburgh (PhD)}}
| workplaces = {{ubl|École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne | University of Texas at Austin | Stellenbosch University | African Institute for Mathematical Sciences}}
| birth_place = The Gambia
| fields = {{ubl|Applied mathematics|Computational mathematics|Data science}}
| thesis1_title = Diffusion Maps: Analysis and Applications
| thesis1_url = https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:e55c4a57-0a51-40d4-bbd7-37abd38afe66
| thesis1_year = 2008
| thesis2_title = Restricted isometry constants in compressed sensing
| thesis2_url = https://hdl.handle.net/1842%2F7642
| thesis2_year = 2012
| doctoral_advisor = Jared Tanner{{MathGenealogy}}
| website = {{URL|https://sites.google.com/aims.ac.za/bubacarr}}
}}
Bubacarr Bah is a Gambian mathematician. He is (as at July 2024) Associate Professor and Head of Data Science
at the MRC Unit based at Banjul, The Gambia.{{cite web|URL=https://www.linkedin.com/in/bubacarr-bah-0ab35387/?originalSubdomain=gm|title=Bubacarr Bah LinkedIn page|accessdate=9 July 2024}} (Note that the unit is run by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine - but was previously managed by the Medical Research Council (United Kingdom). See COVID-19 pandemic in the Gambia). He was previously (2016 - 2022) the chair of Data Science at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS).Bubacarr Bah's {{ORCID}}{{Google scholar id}} He has recently been assistant professor at Stellenbosch University.
Early life and education
Bah was born in The Gambia.{{Cite web|url=https://aims.ac.za/2016/10/01/the-aims-network-through-aims-south-africa-welcomes-another-research-chair-from-outside-the-continent-under-the-german-research-chair-programme-at-aims/|title=The AIMS network welcomes another Research Chair under the German Research Chair programme at AIMS |publisher= AIMS South Africa|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-26|website=aims.ac.za}} He studied mathematics at the University of the Gambia and graduated summa cum laude in 2004.{{Cite web|url=http://www.deeplearningindaba.com/bubacarr-bah.html|title=Bubacarr Bah|website=deeplearningindaba.com|publisher=Deep Learning Indaba|language=en|access-date=2019-03-26}}{{Cite web|url=https://lions.epfl.ch/people/alumni/alumni-postdocs/alumni-postdocs-bubacarr_bah/|title=Bubacarr Bah – LIONS|website=lions.epfl.ch|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-03-26}} He was awarded a Master of Science (MSc) degree from the University of Oxford,{{cite thesis|degree=MSc|publisher=University of Oxford|url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:e55c4a57-0a51-40d4-bbd7-37abd38afe66|title=Diffusion Maps: Analysis and Applications|first= Bubacarr|last=Bah|date=2008|website=ora.ox.ac.uk|oclc=430338759}} {{free access}} where he studied mathematical modelling as a postgraduate student of Wolfson College, Oxford.{{Cite web|url=https://aims.ac.za/research/data-science-and-information-systems/dr-bubacarr-bah/|title=Dr Bubacarr Bah {{!}} AIMS South Africa|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-26}}{{Cite web|url=https://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/tanner/people.shtml|publisher=University of Oxford |title= Mathematics Institute - Jared Tanner - Students & Postdocs|website=people.maths.ox.ac.uk|access-date=2019-03-26|first=Jared|last=Tanner|year=2018}} He joined the University of Edinburgh, where his PhD investigated compressed sensing and was supervised by {{ill|Jared Tanner|qid=Q62554528|reasonator=1}}.{{cite thesis|degree=PhD|publisher=University of Edinburgh|title=Restricted isometry constants in compressed sensing|first= Bubacarr|last=Bah|date=2012|id={{EThOS|uk.bl.ethos.578348}}|oclc=862754793|hdl=1842/7642}} {{free access}} He was a member of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) student chapter.{{Cite web|url=https://archive.siam.org/students/chapters/pdf/an11-12_pp.pdf|title=Student chapter breakfast|website=siam.org|publisher=Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics|access-date=2019-03-26}} His work on Gaussian matrices was awarded the SIAM best student paper.{{Cite journal|last1=Bah|first1=B.|last2=Tanner|first2=J.|date=2010|title=Improved Bounds on Restricted Isometry Constants for Gaussian Matrices|journal=SIAM Journal on Matrix Analysis and Applications|volume=31|issue=5|pages=2882–2898|doi=10.1137/100788884|issn=0895-4798|arxiv=1003.3299|s2cid=5859468 }}{{Cite web|url=https://www.ams.org/notices/201009/rtx100901138p.pdf|title=Mathematics People|website=ams.org|publisher=American Mathematical Society|access-date=2019-03-26}}
Research and career
Between 2012 and 2014 Bah was a postdoctoral researcher at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, where he continued his investigations into compressed sensing. He was a member of the Laboratory for Information and Inference Systems.{{Cite journal|date=2016-01-09|title=Dr Bubacarr Bah elected Humbolt [sic] Chair Faculty at AIMS South Africa|url=https://actu.epfl.ch/news/dr-bubacarr-bah-elected-humbolt-chair-faculty-at-a/|language=en|website=actu.epfl.ch}}
In 2014 Bah joined the University of Texas at Austin, where he worked on signal processing, machine learning and sampling strategies in high-dimensional data.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nexteinstein.org/blog/2016/08/31/bubacarr-bah-has-been-awarded-the-prestigious-german-chair-in-mathematics/?platform=hootsuite|title=Bubacarr Bah Has Been Awarded the Prestigious German Chair in Mathematics {{!}} AIMS|website=nexteinstein.org|access-date=2019-03-26}} He developed a matrix for dimensionality reduction that uses bi-Lipschitz embeddings, which can exploit data redundancy.{{Cite web|url=https://www.colorado.edu/amath/events/Computational-Math-Seminar-Bubacarr-Bah|title=Computational Math Seminar: Bubacarr Bah|date=2015-10-06|website=colorado.edu|language=en|access-date=2019-03-26}}{{Cite web|url=https://aims-cameroon.org/2016/06/17/visiting-delegation-from-the-alexander-von-humboldt-foundation/|website=aims-cameroon.org|title=Visiting delegation from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation {{!}} AIMS Cameroon - NextEinstein Initiative|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-26}}{{Cite journal|last1=Bah|first1=Bubacarr|last2=Sadeghian|first2=Ali|last3=Cevher|first3=Volkan|date=2013|title=Energy-aware adaptive bi-Lipschitz embeddings|arxiv=1307.3457}}
In 2016 Bah was appointed the German Chair in Mathematics at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), which is supported by the Humboldt Foundation. The position was welcomed by the AIMS community, who believe Africa needs better data science infrastructure. Bah organised the software engineering for Applied Mathematical Sciences workshop, which teaches basic programming and research programming.{{Cite web|url=https://seams-workshop.gitlab.io/faculty/|title=SEAMS Workshop v5 ~ TBD 2019!|website=seams-workshop.gitlab.io|access-date=2019-03-26}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.nexteinstein.org/blog/2017/06/02/aims-south-africa-data-science-workshop-organised-by-dr-bubacarr-bah-the-german-research-chair-of-mathematics/|title=AIMS South Africa : Data Science Workshop organised by Dr Bubacarr Bah, the German Research Chair of Mathematics {{!}} AIMS|website=nexteinstein.org|access-date=2019-03-26}} He is responsible for connecting the AIMS in South Africa with central Africa and German universities.{{Cite web|url=https://www.humboldt-foundation.de/web/45078366.html|title=Humboldt Foundation strengthens university education and research in mathematics in Africa|website=humboldt-foundation.de|access-date=2019-03-26}} As of 2019, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation supports five chairs at AIMS centres.{{Cite web|url=https://www.humboldt-foundation.de/web/54057910.html|title=New research chair appointed in Africa|website=humboldt-foundation.de|access-date=2019-03-26}} He holds a joint position at Stellenbosch University, where he works on information theory and deep learning.{{Cite web|url=http://sanum.github.io/|title=SANUM - South African Numerical and Applied Mathematics|website=sanum.github.io|access-date=2019-03-26}}{{Cite web|url=http://newton.cam.ac.uk/person/isaac-id-21837|title=Bubacarr Bah {{!}} Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences|website=newton.cam.ac.uk|access-date=2019-03-26}}
In March 2019 Bah was appointed to the Google advanced technology external advisory council, a collection of experts who will consider the artificial intelligence (AI) principles of Google.{{Cite web|url=https://www.blog.google/technology/ai/external-advisory-council-help-advance-responsible-development-ai/|title=An external advisory council to help advance the responsible development of AI|date=2019-03-26|website=blog.google|language=en|access-date=2019-03-26}}
Google disbanded ATEAC on April 4, 2019 following criticism by Google employees about another member, Kay Coles James.{{cite web|url=https://blog.google/technology/ai/external-advisory-council-help-advance-responsible-development-ai/|title=Google updated news release|accessdate=9 July 2024}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bah, Bubacarr}}
Category:Gambian mathematicians
Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford