The West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use, WASCAL in collaboration with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the University of Missouri – Kansas City, have organized a 12day Capacity Building Workshop on Interdisciplinary Remote Sensing, Modeling, and Validation of Environmental Processes.
Dr. Charles Ichoku from NASA Goddard Space
Flight Centre, expressed his delight about the workshop and assured
participants that the outcome of the workshop was going to contribute
immensely towards West African development.
Rev. Professor Charles Ansah, Pro-Vice
Chancellor, Kwame Nkrumah University Science and Technology (KNUST) in
his welcome address expressed the excitement of the University
Management about the introduction of the WASCAL PhD programme in Climate
Change and Land Use funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and
Research (BMBF), Germany.
He noted that, NASA-COSPAR (Committee on Space and Research) training workshop was very useful to train the next generation of scientists, enhance their knowledge and stimulate research interests in space science. Rev. Prof. Ansah stated.
“As a University, we welcome the initiative by
the German Government, NASA, COSPAR and the University of Missouri –
Kansas City to support the training of Africans to solve Africa’s
challenges especially on issues relating to Climate Science, with
particular focus on Remote Sensing Climate Modeling”. He stated.
Professor Janet Adelegan, Director for Capacity
Building, WASCAL traced the history of the WASCAL-NASA collaboration and
briefly explained that the workshop is aimed at building the capacity
of early career scientists on remote sensing and modelling of climate
data in West Africa.
This workshop, primarily sponsored by the International Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) and WASCAL, with supplementary funding support from African Development Bank (AfDB), aimed at equipping students with knowledge in space-based interdisciplinary remote sensing and modelling, which is in its infancy in West Africa. Over all, nine lecturers from NASA and other Institutions in Europe and West Africa, and thirty early career scientists from WASCAL Doctoral Schools in West Africa, postgraduate students and academic faculty participated in the workshop.