The Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology is a premier centre of the University of Nairobi (UoN) committed to the promotion of peaceful applications of Nuclear Science and Technology in education and research. The science is well known to be in the forefront of sustainable economic development and delivery of improved socioeconomic benefits to the global citizens. One needs to simply interrogate the history of the scientific contribution to life-saving, development of the periodic table of the elements, structure of materials and the current applications in medical diagnosis and nuclear medicine to appreciate its importance and popularity. To enlighten a bit of the science history, the current popular and important x-ray imaging by medical practitioners and material science has its origin from the image of the hand of the wife of the x-ray discoverer, Wilhelm Roentgen, in 1895. Its exploitation in subsequent radiography technologies saw many soldiers saved during the 1st and 2nd world war. We owe the science the extensive knowledge in understating the elements (The Periodic Table of the Elements) and the crystalline structures of simple to complex molecules, which includes proteins and various material structures. In general, the applications of the science is found in all aspects of human activities and environment, which includes applications in agriculture, food production and preservation, atmospheric and outer space sciences, mineralogy, security, infrastructure inspection, industrial processes (in mining, pharmaceutical, and even the aeronautical and shipping industries etc.) and electricity generation. In view of the foregoing, an educated human resource in nuclear science and technology will remain in demand in Kenya and by extension the region, and therefore an employment opportunity for the Kenyan youth.
We have to appreciate that Kenya and the wider African continent will have to develop capacity in peaceful applications of Nuclear Science to achieve sustainable economic development and to uplift the socioeconomic status of the citizen. This is what University of Nairobi fore saw in including the program of Master of Science in Nuclear Science and Technology in its programs’ mix. The program is multidisciplinary for graduates from Physical Sciences and Engineers, and its delivery, including associated short training courses, opens a wide scope of employment opportunities in the Kenyan development activities and beyond. An example is the frequent offers of PhD studies and employments opportunities in the North and South universities to INST alumni. The Program implementation is in accordance with the University of Nairobi Strategic plan which supports Kenya Longterm Strategic Plan (Vision 2030), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the current government “BIG Four” Agenda. The delivery is therefore focused on producing world class competitive graduates in line with the vision and mission of the University of Nairobi.
