Fellowship Focus

There is an increased interest and demand to monitor and track carbon emissions. There is also a considerable effort and action taken to geospatially measure carbon emissions. More satellites are being launched or designed to support monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions. National and international initiatives are being coordinated to sustain, advance and share satellite observations. At-cost data providers, or SaaS companies using their own commercial satellites, have already realized the importance of having a platform that combines all data sources, and are offering this as a paid service. 

Nelly will create a database hosted on Wikibase that includes metadata of available geospatial and ground measurements of carbon emissions. These data will be linked to a geolocation and a time of observation. The database acts like an open source search engine that would provide the user the information on where to find carbon emission data for a certain geolocation. The user could search for a geolocation and choose to confine the search to a certain time. The aim of this project is to help foster collaborations and transparency in the effort to address climate change, which will be a valuable tool for individuals, organizations, and governments working to reduce their carbon footprint.

Bio

Nelly Mouawad (she/her) is an astrophysicist who has worked on multiple projects in space sciences, including on NASA missions and with Nobel Prize laureates. She is an educator with 10+ years of work experience as a university faculty member. She has contributed to building new education programs in her home country (Lebanon), as well as developing astronomy and bringing it to students. Through her work, promotes equal rights and gender equality. She believes in the power of education and mentoring as a tool for innovation and entrepreneurship. She has studied and worked in Europe, the Middle East and the US, and is interested in working on topics that matter and make a difference in people’s lives. Her main focus is on projects that apply science and technology to create innovative solutions with global impact.