Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program to Support Projects in Africa

Assistant Professor Catherine Nakalembe of the Department of Geographical Sciences was awarded a prestigious fellowship by the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program to conduct important work in Nigeria. 

Nakalembe will work with the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Nigeria, and Dr. Akinola Komolafe on a project titled “Collaborative Research in Flood Risk and Impacts On Agricultural Land: Implications For Food Security In Nigeria and Research Capacity Building and Mentoring of Graduate Students in Recent Advanced Analytical Methods in Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems.” 

The project focuses on analyzing flood impacts on agricultural lands in Nigeria’s Niger River Basins. The research aims to develop a flood detection and monitoring system in agricultural regions using Sentinel satellite data and machine learning. This project will support Nigeria’s disaster risk reduction efforts and food security strategies. 

Nakalembe’s visit and efforts will strengthen ties between the University of Maryland and FUTA, potentially leading to the creation of an MoU. 

“This collaboration aims to produce several high-impact journal articles and provide advanced training for graduate students in remote sensing and GIS techniques, which would contribute significantly to Nigeria’s flood risk assessment and agricultural management,” Nakalembe said. “It is an honor to receive support for this critical and collaborative work.”

The FUTA project is one of 60 new projects in 2023 that pair African Diaspora scholars with higher education institutions and collaborators in Africa to collaborate on curriculum co-development, collaborative research, graduate training, and mentoring activities.

The Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program, now in its tenth year, is designed to strengthen capacity at the host institutions and develop long-term, mutually beneficial collaborations between universities in Africa, the United States, and Canada. It is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and managed by the Institute of International Education in collaboration with the Association of African Universities. 

Fellowships match host universities with African-born scholars and cover the expenses for project visits of between 14 and 90 days, including transportation, a daily stipend, and the cost of obtaining visas and health insurance.

This new project and award continue Nakalembe’s celebrated body of research and efforts in food security and disaster risk reduction in Africa. Over the years, Nakalembe has developed methods and building capacity for monitoring agriculture and early decision-making using satellite data. 

She is the NASA Harvest Africa Program Director, working with national ministries and development partners in Eastern and West Africa. NASA Harvest, NASA's Food Security and Agriculture Program, is a multidisciplinary program commissioned by NASA and led by the University of Maryland to enhance the use of satellite data in decision-making related to food security and agriculture across the nation and the world. 

Among her many honors, Nakalembe is the recipient of the 2022 Al-Sumait Prize for African Development.