The Department of African American Studies hosted Africa Initiative Public lecture with professor Charles Ichoku on February 17, 2020 at Sims hall.

Dr. Charles Ichoku is a Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies within the College of Arts and Sciences (COAS) at Howard University. He is also the Distinguished Scientist of the NOAA Cooperative Science Center in Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology (NCAS-M), a thirteen-member academic consortium constituted to diversify the student population trained in Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, Meteorology, and other fields that are aligned with NOAA’s mission enterprise.

Dr. Ichoku talked about how he was actively involved in the development of innovative approaches for data mapping land-atmosphere interaction processes around Lake Chad region, analyzing the energetics and emissions of wildfires and biomass burning, evaluating atmospheric aerosol retrievals from satellite observations, and understanding the impacts of these phenomena on the environment and climate around Lake Chad region. The students were perceptive and intrigued by his presentation. The lecture was followed by an interactive session of questions and answers and light refreshments.

Dr. Ichoku has trained and mentored a large number of undergraduate and graduate students, as well as postdocs and early-career scientists and university faculty, and has won several NASA individual and group achievement awards. He has published more than 70 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals and has delivered multiple dozens of invited and keynote talks at a variety of international and national conferences/workshops and research seminars.

We had an amazing evening and expect to see him soon to enlighten Syracuse University students with his amazing research work in the area of climate change and its global impact.