Prof. Catherine Nakalembe explains opportunities and challenges in using satellite data and agricultural monitoring to improve food security, an especially urgent challenge in the context of climate change. In her role as NASA Harvest Africa Program Director, Dr. Nakalembe works with smallholder farmers and national governments to inform decision-making. Catherine Nakalembe is Assistant Research Professor at the University of Maryland. She grew up in Kampala, Uganda, where she earned a BSc. at Makerere University in Environmental Science. Dr. Nakalembe earned an MSc. in Geography and Environmental Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and her Ph.D. in Geographical Science at the University of Maryland. She was recently awarded the 2020 Africa Food Prize (AFP) for her contributions to the promotion of food security across the continent.

Dr. Nakalembe's interests include agriculture, food security, remote sensing, and climate change. She has worked with the World Bank Environment Group and Climate Change Unit, The Nature Conservancy, The United Nations Development Program and the NASA LCLUC program. She works with government agencies in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda as a co-investigator on the NASA SERVIR Applied Sciences Team and NASA Harvest. She serves as the Program Assistant for the NASA Land Cover and Land Use Change Program. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx