Namibian Outreach During ORACLES

Elin travelled to Ongwediva, Namibia with Rob Wood, deputy PI of the NASA ORACLES campaign, to attend the “Love Pulses Science: The pulse of innovation” meeting. They traveled and shared a booth at the Trade Fair Center with host scientists and graduate students from both the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) and the Gobabeb Research & Training Centre.

On September 12th, Elin and Rob attended the opening ceremony which included presentations by Hon. Angelina Angula, Mayor of Ongwediva, Hon. Clemens Kashuupulwa, Govenor of Oshana region, and Dr. Alfred van Kent, Permanent Secretary, Higher Education, Training and Innovation. That day, about 120 local school children visited the NASA/Gobabeb/NUST booth, asking questions and picking up goodies.

Both Elin and Rob recorded talks about their careers in science as well as their roles in the NASA ORACLES project. These videos were included as part of the ‘Interactive talks’ session each day at the conference, and were viewed by hundreds of students. The NUST and Gobabeb hosts continued to hand out NASA brochures and talk about the ORACLES project at the booth, interacting with many young students throughout the week-long conference.