Prosper Mpawenayo, a Regular ICTP Associate since 1993 and Fellow in the Programme for Training and Research in Italian Laboratories (TRIL) since 1985, has been named the new Minister of National Education and Scientific Research in Burundi in central Africa. Thanks to his TRIL fellowship, Mpawenayo visited the Politecnico di Torino on several occasions during the 1980s and 1990s, including earlier this year. His major field of research is semiconductor physics.