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What Space can do for WI*

An introductory session discussing the potential benefits and feasibility of space technology to the Caribbean.
This session will focus on how space technology can play an integral role in the Caribbean achieving 4 Sustainable development goals (Climate Action, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Decent Work and Economic Growth & Partnership for the goals).

The first half of the webinar will be a panel discussion and this will be followed by attendees being separated into breakout rooms for discussion on one of the four topics. An introduction to the breakout rooms is provided on the EventBrite page when you click “Register here”.

 

*(The “WI” in the title is a play on the word “we”. WI stands for West Indies, which is another name the collection Caribbean of islands with similar history/culture is called. The phrasing of the title also represents common Caribbean dialect so instead of saying “What space can do for us”, some Caribbean natives might say “What Space can do for we”).

 

REGISTER HERE

 

Confirmed Speakers

Dr. Claire Nelson is Lead Futurist of The Futures Forum, an advisory practice specializing in foresight and sustainability engineering and Founding Convenor of the Caribbean Space Society. She serves on the Board of Journal of Futures Studies and is Editor-At-Large of World Futures Studies Federation’s Human Futures Magazine.
Before establishing The Futures Forum, Dr. Nelson had a thirty-year career at the Inter-American Development Bank and pioneered the Bank’s development with equity agenda. Named among Forbes Top 50 Female Futurists, she holds a Doctorate in Engineering Management from George Washington University and was honored as a White House Champion of Change.

Ricardo Small is a Barbadian Amateur Astronomer and Civil Servant. Mr. Small’s interest in astronomy and science in general was kindled in high school where he consumed volumes of literature on the subject. Ironically, his post-secondary education in Computer Science spoke more to the realities of the workplace than to the theoretics of astronomy.
It was in 1982 that Mr. Small realised the opportunity to play an active role in Barbadian Astronomy when he joined the Barbados Astronomical Society(BASI).
Throughout the years until the present, Mr. Small has served the BASI in various roles, Council member, Vice President, three five year terms as President, and
at present Member of the Board of Directors.
In 2013 the BASI’s Harry Bayley Observatory (HBO) was forced to close its doors to the public due to an incident of vandalism. Mr. Small, who was then the President, immediately brought to public notice the plight of HBO and drew up plans for the extensive refurbishment and reequipping of the Observatory.
With a generous grant from a UK based foundation, Mr. Small led the transformation of the HBO from a worn, poorly equipped facility into a modern Observatory possessing a large inventory of state-of –the –Art equipment; marking it as one of the finest in the Caribbean.
In public life, Mr. Small is a Civil Servant. He is at present assigned to the Barbados Postal Services where he has served the Department in various capacities including Management Information Systems, Superintendent Personnel Department, Manager Business Centre and Services Section among others.
Mr. Small has increasingly brought his management skills honed in the Civil Service to bear in his administration of the affairs of the BASI; namely in the revamping the Organisational Structure of the BASI to reflect a more modern and capable Incorporated body and reshaping the organisation to fulfill a research and experimenting role inastronomy and the related sciences.

Dr. Shirin Haque is an astronomer by profession, a former Head of Physics Department and former Deputy Dean at the University of the West Indies. She is
the 2020 laureate for the Anthony Sabga Caribbean Awards for Excellence in Science and Technology and the first woman to be awarded the CARICOM
Science award in 2018.
Her areas of research are Astrobiology and Cosmology. She is passionate about Science outreach and STEM issues. She has produced several local Caribbean Science documentaries and hosted and produced two television series “Exploring our place in the Universe” and “Full STEAM Ahead!”.
She is producer and editor of the magazine “The Intellectual – art, science and architecture”. She is the director of SATU observatory, and the NINE Radio
Astronomy Caribbean Hub and the National Outreach coordinator with the International Astronomical Union and a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Dr. Emil Cherrington is a Caribbean-born scientist based at the Earth System Science Center of the University of Alabama in Huntsville. In that capacity, he also serves as the Regional Science Coordination Lead for West Africa at NASA’s SERVIR Science Coordination Office. He also currently serves as the Science Principal Investigator and a co-Investigator on the ongoing NASA-funded Climate-influenced Nutrient Flows and Threats to the Biodiversity of the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System (BZ-SDG) project. Outside of his land cover monitoring research, his interests also include science communication and promoting capacity development in Earth observations. In 2007 in the context of the GEF IWCAM project, he co-led a regional assessment of geographic information systems (GIS) capacity in the Caribbean.  

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