Meet Charles Ichoku, Ph.D. He is a professor in the Atmospheric Sciences Department at Howard University and stands as a distinguished scientist at NCAS-M.
Before he joined NCAS-M, Charles conducted substantial research around the world. He received Bachelor’s and Master’s of Science Remote Sensing and Surveying degrees from the University of Nigeria and a PhD in Earth Sciences from Pierre and Marie Curie University in France. He continued his studies in Israel and Germany before heading to the United States. After conducting research in Germany, he accepted a job at NASA Goddard as a research scientist for 20 years.
While at NASA, some of his research focused on studying regions of Africa, particularly the Sahel, where there has been an ongoing drought. Charles decided to pursue the research with a team of collaborators from different universities. While conducting his research, he decided to develop young minds to become interested in similar research to help motivate and contribute to training scientists coming out of Africa. This effort later became the Capacity Building Workshop.
When reflecting on his experience working in the science community, Charles said, “I don’t see too many people like me doing similar things. So, I would like to contribute toward encouraging underrepresented minorities to participate in things related to environmental and planning research.” Ichoku has done much research and has trained many people around the world. He is now continuing his passion of diversifying the science community at NCAS-M.
Since starting at NCAS-M in 2018, he has worked hard to provide students with opportunities to share their research. He coordinates a NCAS-M Wide Focus Group that allows students to share their research and receive feedback. His goal is to “train students to the very highest standards of scientific research.” He not only passes on his knowledge to his students, but his confidence. Charles, like all other professors apart of the NCAS-M team, push their students to be the best they can be.
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