First ITC student wins prize for best thesis

Even though the soil scientist couldn’t understand many of the Dutch speeches at the Opening of the Academic Year on 6 September, Matthew Ofwono, one of the six winners of the scriptieprijs, listened to the praise in English from Rector Ed Brinksma. ‘The jury was particularly impressed by Mr. Ofwono’s thorough analysis of his results and by the uncertainty analysis which makes the thesis a very complete study.’

He is the first master’s student to be awarded the prestigious scriptieprijs from the new faculty of the UT for his research conducted in the Tibetan Plateau. For the 34-year-old researcher, who used to walk barefoot to his elementary school that had no desks or electricity, he says winning the prize came by ‘the grace of God’.

His thesis topic falls in line with Brinksma’s own keen interest on the topic of sustainable living and the study of climate change. Since he was eight years old, he helped his family with outdoor ‘domestic duties’, and it comes as no surprise, Ofwono developed an early affinity for researching on the subject.
Up to now, he says the school in his home city of Torono, sub-Saharan Africa, hasn’t really changed. He estimates 90 percent of the people live as peasants, and the other 10 percent live an ‘average’ life, where nobody is lauded as being rich. ‘Sometimes you wonder why you are there. You are not supposed to be there, but you can’t do much about it. We are peasants. I plowed my father’s rice fields to earn money to attend school. It’s not a nice job. It was paddy rice that was grown in water so moving the oxen through the water was difficult. I wasn’t a big person. I was a small kid.’

Ofwono earned his bachelor degree at Alexander University in Egypt. ‘When I went to Egypt I was amazed by the fact that it is mainly a desert, yet they produce more food than in sub-Saharan Africa where there is lots of rainfall.’ His interest was sharpened to study soil and water issues. He wondered, ‘How can a desert have plenty of food, yet back in Africa, if it is dry season then the crops fail. People are hungry.’ The difference he learned was due to a well-developed irrigation system not dependent on weather patterns.

Ofwono, together with his supervisor Rogier van der Velde, derived land surface temperature and soil moisture data from sensor satellite imagers (SSMI) taken from space. The instruments measured the brightness temperature of the earth’s surface.

Later, by using algorithms, the data was then converted to show the land surface temperature and level of moisture in the soil through a software program called Interactive Data Language. ‘Once we had collected the data,’ explained Ofwono, ‘we performed a time series analysis. Basically, after you get the first images, you then layer all the other images on top. So, let’s say, from 1998 to 2008, you can begin to notice climate changes in this area.’
Van der Velde injected in the conversation, ‘In 2006, we buried devices in the soil to collect ground measurements of soil moisture and soil temperature.’ Both researchers showed graphs with the final results which indicated over the last 20 years significant climate changes have taken place in the central Tibet region. (see illustration)

The big question is of course is whether the researcher can continue to study further the causes behind climate changes in the Tibetan Plateau. ‘I want to find out what proportion of the increase in moisture is caused by precipitation and how much is caused by the melting of glaciers. I would like to study the melting rate of the glaciers,’ said Ofwono. ‘In fact, I could get my PhD at the ITC, but there are no funds to support further study.’

Matthew Ofwono after winning the prize comments on life in the Netherlands: ‘In some foreign countries, people have racist attitudes. They insult you. But here, nobody bothers you. I haven’t discovered any racism myself.  Dutch people see you as if they have seen you ten times before; it’s really no big surprise to see a black person.’  (Photo: Arjan Reef)