Give me any kid who can walk and talk and they can become a Nobel Prize winner in Physics." Considering the current state of education in the United States, this is the kind of boast that could bring chuckles…unless you can back it up.

Dr. Diola Bagayoko made the above statement, and he doesn't joke about education. Dr. Bagayoko is the founder of the Timbuktu Academy, a national model program for mentoring pre-college, undergraduate, and graduate students in Science, Math, Engineering and Technology based at Southern University at Baton Rouge, La.

Since 1990, the Timbuktu Academy has won Presidential Awards from two different administrations and the Office of Naval Research has invested over $6 million in his program over a 10-year period, the latest grant amounting to nearly $1 million. The program is a virtual magnet for academic awards and citations.

But it's the science of lifelong learning that Dr. Bagayoko raves about. This science is of major importance to anyone desiring to become an effective teacher, parent or student. And Dr. Bagayoko is quick to stress that high achievement in education IS science, "Anyone can be made into an intellectual giant, (a genius)!"

Dr. Bagayoko was born in Mali, where he had formal training in the theory and practice of Teaching and Learning. He earned a BS degree in Physics and Chemistry from Mali's Ecole Normale Superieure in 1973. Bagayoko came to the US in 1978, the same year that he received his Master's degree in Solid State Physics. His Ph.D. was earned from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, La, in 1983, one year before he began teaching physics at Southern in the same city. He is currently a professor of physics and Chancellor's fellow at Southern.

The Timbuktu Academy is named after the former University of Timbuktu, the famous center of world scholarship in the middle of the last millennium. The University of Timbuktu, in Mali, West Africa, is located on the banks of the majestic Niger River. The Timbuktu Academy on the campus of Southern University in Baton Rouge, La. is likewise located on the banks of a mighty river, the Mississippi river.

The Genius Factory

Proximity to a river is not the only similarity between the two institutions. Like its namesake, the Timbuktu Academy is churning out overachievers. The program has already received two US Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics, Science, and Engineering Mentoring for its work with creating opportunities for participation by women, minorities, and disabled persons in science, math, and engineering from the elementary through graduate levels.

The Academy's objectives are to produce first-class minority scientists and engineers who pursue Ph.D. degrees; to produce, organize, and disseminate knowledge through research, publications, and presentations; and to render professional services to the educational, corporate, and academic communities.

To date, the Academy has mentored nearly 1,000 pre-college students, helped over 120 attain bachelor's degrees and helped more than 70 people achieve graduate degrees, with an emphasis on doctorates. It is now a given that students who complete one of the Academy's summer or after school programs dramatically raise their standardized test scores.

Spreading the science of achievement is a priority. That's why Timbuktu has an annual outreach to more than 5000 students, teachers, counselors, and administrators. This outreach happens through presentations, consultations and also via the numerous published articles by Dr. Bagayoko and his staff. His work and the Timbuktu Paradigm are documented in several professional publications.

Bagayoko is already well along the road to establishing Timbuktu-type programs across the nation. Currently there are 11 sites applying the Timbuktu Paradigm in Louisiana through the Louis Stokes-Louisiana Alliance for Minority Participation (LS-LAMP). Since 1995 LSLAMP has been working to increase the number and quality of minority students earning undergrad degrees in science,  technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.

Led by Timbuktu at Southern in Baton Rouge, LS-LAMP comprises eleven colleges and universities and one research organization, including Grambling State University, Dillard University, Tulane University, Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge, Southern University at New Orleans, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, McNeese State University, University of New Orleans, Nunez Community College, and Southern University at Shreveport, and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, a research organization.

LS-LAMP Phase I (1995-2000) has succeeded in both minority STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) BS degree production and graduate school enrollment. In response, the National Science Foundation and the Louisiana Board of Regents recently funded Phase II (2000-05) at the level of $1.5 million per year.

Dr. Bagayoko insists that his results can be duplicated with any student who does not have severe mental or physiological impairment.

The Beginnings

The Timbuktu Academy was first established in 1990, with funding from the Louisiana Stimulus for Excellence in Research (LASER) and from the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Bagayoko and his team were concerned about the academic achievement gap and the notion that Blacks could not excel in the technical fields. Being scientists, they took a scientific approach to the problem. "We did an extensive review of all available literature on the learning process. Any system you can name, we studied it and took the best from each. We also noted the things that these systems had in common. This communality helped us to identify the laws and principles upon which the Timbuktu Academy is based."

From 1992 to the present, the Physics Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has supported the Academy along with the Office of Naval Research.

Initially, the Timbuktu Academy was strictly for mentoring physics majors from pre-college through graduate school. With Dr. Ella L. Kelley and Dr. Reza Mirshams, Dr. Bagayoko formed a group to submit a proposal to the Department of Defense for expanding to the Timbuktu Academy.

The Department of Defense referred this project to the Office of Naval Research (ONR), who funded the project at $584,034 per year for three years. This major funding marked the liftoff for the Timbuktu Academy as it now exists.

The Timbuktu Academy has evolved into a recruiting, holistic mentoring, and research participation program for students from middle school to graduate school. Timbuktu students and staff have participated in and presented formal papers at most of this country's technical conferences and competitions. The sub-programs of the Academy are the following:

• Summer Science Institute for sixty middle school students. (3-week, non-residential)

• Summer Enrichment Program for twenty ninth graders (3-week, nonresidential)

• Summer Science Institute for twenty eleventh graders (6-week, residential)

• Challenge 2000 for twenty high school students (6- week, residential)

• Summer Bridge Institute, early college enrollment program for high achieving high school graduates

• Undergraduate Research Program for fifty Physics, Chemistry and Engineering majors

• LA. Board of Regents Superior Graduate Fellowship program

• Educational Services Program

Each of these programs uses the learning principles of the Timbuktu Paradigm to help students at different levels and backgrounds dramatically increase the level of their personal achievement.

"Learning About Learning"

"The good news," says Bagayoko "is that any child can learn. It's not magic or chance. It's a scientific event that can be copied again and again. This good news is that there is no known limit to what a given student, from pre-K on, can learn or discover. The level of wealth or poverty, the ethnic affiliation and gender are not, by themselves, determinants of what a student can or cannot do in class or on standardized tests."

High expectations should be set for all. Yes, some changing gaps continue to exist between the achievement levels of different ethnic groups, and different genders. The "Law of Performance," according to Dr. Bagayoko, explains these differences scientifically, rigorously, and correctly.

Laying Down "The Law"

Dr. Bagayoko is passionate about the set of principles that form the basis for the ongoing success of Timbuktu, beginning with what he calls the "Power Law of Human Performance." It applies to physical, artistic, and intellectual tasks. It simply says that our proficiency in performing one task increases when we increase the number of times we practice that task. In other words, "practice renders perfect."

The objectives of the HBCU/MI Council are as follows:

• to foster support of meritorious research proposals originating at HBCU/MIs

• to assist HBCU/MIs in strengthening their capability to conduct quality research of interest to ONR

• to assist in the development of science and engineering education programs geared to increasing the participation of underrepresented minorities in research and development areas of interest to ONR

• to coordinate the ONR HBCU/MI Program with similar programs in other Federal agencies.

It's already working. The Navy has been funding the Academy for 13 years now and participants from the Timbuktu Academy have been placed in technical and research areas of the Navy and other governmental agencies.

Sarenee L. Cooper, a Physical Science Technician in the Ionizing Radiation Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and a Georgetown Masters candidate, attributes much of her success to "Dr. Bagayoko's relentless push for committed participation in coursework, seminars, conferences and the well roundedness of the program."

"We look forward to our continuing dialogue about leadership opportunities in the Navy and Marine Corps for Southern graduates. The interactions must embrace the institution through additional research and education support so that we maintain the infrastructure necessary to produce well trained scientists and engineers," said Anthony Junior.

A key part of this work on the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) pipeline consists of developing relationships with Navy laboratories where several undergraduate students are expected to conduct summer research.

More than Money From the Navy and Others

Several officials of the Navy and of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) have provided invaluable support to the Timbuktu Academy, over and beyond the significant and stable funding. They include Dr. Harold Guard, the first program officer at ONR for the Timbuktu Academy; Dr. Katie. Blanding, Dr. Laura Petonito, and Mr. Bill Ellis, the successor program officers. Mr. Ellis is the current one. Naturally, the support of Mr. Anthony Junior has been pivotal. Several Rear Admirals have also supported the Academy in person. In particular, Rear Admiral Gaffney, former director of ONR, delivered an inspiring commencement speech at SUBR at the invitation of the Academy and the University. Rear Admiral Ann Rondeau visited SUBR twice in 2004. These visits were part of her genuine efforts to build and reinforce collaborations and partnership between the Navy and minority serving universities like SUBR. Finally, in December 2004, Rear Admiral Melvin G. Williams, Jr., spoke to the Scholars of the Academy of managing priorities as opposed to time, as the former should determine the allocation of the latter. The local Navy supporters of the Academy include Captain Sapp, the Commander of the Navy ROTC, and his staff. Bagayoko regularly notes the above support to the scholars to signify that not only failing is not an alternative for the Academy, but nothing less than the best will adequately merit this enriching support.

In Louisiana, many officials have been supporting the Timbuktu Academy and its sister program, LS-LAMP, in addition to SUBR. In particular, the Academy enjoys the substantial support of the Honorable Mary Landrieu, US Senator, and of her staff. For the last two years, she and her staff have been instrumental in ensuring that funds were available, through the Navy, to continue the implementation and dissemination of the national, exemplary model program the Timbuktu Academy is. The Commissioner of Higher Education in Louisiana, Dr. Joseph Savoie, is a champion supporter of the Academy and of LS-LAMP, according to Dr. Bagayoko.

Spread the Word, Close the Gap

The rapid doubling of the world's body of knowledge makes effective, lifelong learning both available and mandatory for survival or success. Yet there is an undeniable gap between those who achieve and those who don't. Bagayoko is passionate and driven in his quest to eliminate the achievement gap. He wants to show the world that learning is possible for anyone who uses a proven, scientific approach.

"We are starting a learning revolution. We intend to eliminate the totally false concept that some are born to learn and others are not. I hope that through proven, documented efforts such as ours, ridiculous myths about education will go by the wayside. We can lift education to a high level for everyone regardless of gender, race, or class.

"We have already proven that the availability of high achievement through mentoring and quality teaching is no longer just a theory. It's a reality, a scientifically proven reality!"

Timbuktu Scholars Weigh in on "The Academy"

Rachel McKinsey:
I was given the opportunity to spend a summer at NIST. My mentor took time to see what my interests were. Once I told her, she told me about a Medical Physicist, and had me to shadow one at the local hospital. After that meeting and research on what a Medical Physicist responsibilities are, I knew what I aspired to become. I have just completed my first semester in the Ph.D. program to become a Medical Physicist at the University of Wisconsin Madison.

Nita Clark:
A senior at Baton Rouge Magnet High School: I attended The Academy the summer before my senior year. They scared us into learning! They upped the grading scale so that a "C " was like an "F." So though we had class from eight in the morning to eight at night, you would find people studying well into midnight. The staff did a good job teaching us not just English but African-American history as well. I was picked as a National Achievement Semifinalist. All the time I was there I did nothing but whine and complain about how much I didn't like it. But now that I'm gone I really miss it.

Winston P. Jackson:
I joined the Academy in my sophomore year in undergrad at SU and remained until I graduated in May of 2003. The program really inspired me to undertake research opportunities in engineering. It helped to better my communication skills through mandatory writing assignments as well as presenting at conferences. Currently, I am a doctoral student at the California Institute of Technology. I credit this program for helping to bridge the gap in the lack of African-American professors in science and engineering.

Jeremiah Abiade:
I participated in the Summer Bridge Institute. A stipend was provided along, with tuition, room, and board. Besides the technical knowledge, the most valuable asset was an unwavering confidence in my abilities and myself. The emphasis on community service and leadership is greatly responsible for the leadership roles I have had. I have been president of the graduate student organization and received several community service awards. I just finished my Ph.D. in materials science and engineering at the University of Florida (Dec. 2004). I will be working as a postdoctoral researcher at North Carolina A&T State University. I would like to establish another mentoring program based on the paradigm that has been successfully demonstrated by Dr. Bagayoko.

Robert Crosby:
I became a scholar immediately after graduating from High School in 1995. The financial support and the constant pushing of one's self (to intern at major companies, governmental  labs, and larger universities; to present research; to attend conferences, etc.) enlightened me to the tremendous rewards of being an African-American professional scientist. Actually I successfully defended my Ph.D. dissertation (in the Materials Science & Engineering Dept. at the University of Florida) two days ago, and in two weeks, I will start a new career as a Process Engineer for a device fabrication facility at Intel.

The Timbuktu Academy can be reached by telephone at 225-771-2730, by fax at 225- 771-4341, by e-mail at Bagayoko@aol.com, and on the web:
http://www.phys.subr.edu/timbuktu.htm.

Kojo Livingston is a staff writer for THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Magazine.