Soil scientist wins award on Tibet study

Oct 11, 2010

“Any country in the path of development must invest in a space programme because satellites provide a cheap means of communication and good data for numerical weather prediction, environmental and climate change,” says Matthew Ofwono, a geo-information technology engineer, soil scientist and hyd

BY SHAMILLA KARA

“Any country in the path of development must invest in a space programme because satellites provide a cheap means of communication and good data for numerical weather prediction, environmental and climate change,” says Matthew Ofwono, a geo-information technology engineer, soil scientist and hydrologist.

Ofwono recently became the first masters student in his faculty at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, to receive the scriptieprijs award.

Ofwono, who was studying at the faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation, received the award in recognition of his research in climate change, which he undertook in the Tibetan Plateau.

Firsts
It seems having the best thesis in his faculty follows a history of academic triumphs for Ofwono. He emerged the best student at Katerema Primary School in Tororo district when he sat for his PLE exams in 1990, “and probably the last person to get a first grade there,” he adds.

Ofwono was also the best O level student at his high school and was among the top four A’ level students at Nabumali High School in 1997.

He was also the best student at the Faculty of Agriculture at Alexandria University in Egypt where he graduated in soil and water sciences.

He also obtained a certificate in rice production and post-harvest handling from the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines.

In addition, he has a Masters degree in Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (Remote Sensing) from the University of Twente.

Career
Ofwono currently works with the National Agricultural Research Organisation at the Ngetta zonal agricultural research and development institute in Lira as a soil scientist.

His responsibilities include conducting research on soil and water issues, land degradation, crop limiting nutrients, environmental and climate change issues.

He formerly worked as an agricultural trainer and extension officer with Tororo district agricultural training and information centre.

He has also worked at a food exporting factory called Secheme in Sharikia Governarote in Egypt during his undergraduate course, and as a farm manager for two years.

He has also been a secondary school teacher during his senior Six vacation.

On his future
“I have not reached where I really want to be,” says the soil scientist who sees himself working with satellite data and geo-spatial modelling of climatic and weather events, “such as precipitation, near real time flood and landslide forecasting and climate change monitoring,” one day.

He plans to undertake his PhD studies in glacier melting, he says.

Soil sciences and Uganda
He suggests the merging of the department of Soil Science at Makerere University Institute of Environment and Natural Resources and the geography department.

“They should form a single research school focusing on Earth observation and geo-simulation so that the university can catch up with the state of the art research in Earth sciences.”

Why so?
“I believe if we had such an institute, the events in Bududa would not have caught us flat footed,” says Ofwono, who developed an interest in space sciences while he was an undergraduate.

He adds that even the National Environment Management Authority should be able to perform near real time environmental analysis.

He gave an example of quick bird imagery, a high resolution satellite.

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