PHL’s Dr. Perez wins top prize in 2018 Asean-U.S. Science Prize for Women

Another Filipina scientist is making headlines around the world. Dr. Gay Jane Perez won first place in the 2018 ASEAN-US Science Prize for Women.

Perez bested 45 ASEAN scientists with her research on satellite remote sensing for examining spatial distribution of temperature, precipitation, vegetation, and soil moisture that enable the assessment of drought impacts.

Her winning work also includes the evaluation of how drought evolves through time. This can be used as basis for drought advisory and mitigation measures.

Providing farmers with better information

In her presentation, Perez discussed one of the many studies that focus on developing tools to advise farmers about extreme weather conditions including drought.

She said the Philippine government has been very supportive as it made a substantial investment in this kind of technology, which include the installation of automated sensors, subscription to satellite data, and building and operating satellites.

Perez also noted that addressing the food security issue requires concerted effort, which can leverage from the existing cooperation among Southeast Asian countries and the US. She also said that satellite-derived products, along with ground measurements for calibration and validation, can be utilized to find out the health of vegetation as well as the location of crops affected by drought and estimate the cost of damages.

via Business Mirror