Mr Mogessie, you have recently been elected Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences, representing one of the highest excellences of the continent in the Earth Sciences. In light of this prestigious role, how would you envisage the development of Earth Sciences disciplines in Africa? Yes, I am elected Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS) recently, and since May 2015, I had the honor to be elected Fellow of the Geological Society of America (GSA), receive a Certificate of Recognition from the Society of Economic Geologists (SEG) for 25 years of distinguished service, and also elected as Associate Fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences (EAS). This is a great honor for me and a recognition of my service to the earth sciences development in research and education in Africa, which I have been promoting as elected President of the Geological Society of Africa since 2008. In light of my role, I envisage the development of Earth Sciences disciplines in Africa as encouraging. As you may know Africa is a big continent with an area of over 30 million Km2 and a population of ca. 1.1 Billion at the moment, increasing at an alarming rate and expected to reach 3 billion by the year 2100. We should therefore see the development of the Earth Sciences and other sectors from this perspective. During the last decade Africa has made progress in many fields among which there is the Earth Sciences. The coming August and early September 2016, we will organize the 35th International Geological Congress at the Cape Town Convention Center, where we expect more than 5000 earth scientists from all over the world to gather and discuss about their research results in the different fields of Earth Sciences. Among the topics of...