Professional Statement

Greetings! My name is Amadi Afua Sefah-Twerefour, a senior in the University of Ghana, Legon, majoring in Oceanography and Fisheries. I intend to further my education after obtaining my undergraduate degree, by pursuing a Master’s degree in Oceanography and then a PhD in Physical Oceanography or Remote Sensing. Research work, in my field of study, is what I plan on doing after completion of my PhD.

The various courses I have studied so far in Oceanography and Fisheries (after my first two years of studying Biological science) have revealed to me a world that hitherto I was oblivious of. This helped to open my mind to ideas derived from new concepts that were intriguing to me. I have since developed an interest in coastal processes and environmental issues such as coastal erosion, climate change, and pollution. In my junior year, I was introduced to remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS), including their applications. I found this very interesting as well.

Currently, I am involved in an Undergraduate Research Experience in Ocean, Marine, and Polar Science 2010 (URE OMPS) at Elizabeth City State University and University of Kansas. In this programme, I am part of the ‘Autonomous GPS Guided Watercraft’ team under the mentorship of Dr. Eric Akers. This research experience will be very useful with respect to my interest in coastal processes and other environmental issues and the application of remote sensing and GIS in understanding their mechanisms. The programme is under the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) and the Center of Excellence in Remote Sensing Education and Research. Understanding the impact of glacier melt on sea level rise is one of the goals of CReSIS.

The Gulf of Guinea forms the southern border of Ghana, thus sea level rise is a challenge the country faces. Most of our low-lying coastal areas are becoming inundated as global temperatures rise. Unfortunately, activities prevalent along our coasts, such as sand winning and over harvesting of mangrove forests are contributing towards the rapid inundation of these areas as they loosen up the soil and increase the rate of erosion. Also, Ghana has the majority of its settlements unplanned, most of the inland waters polluted, and major flooding problems during the rainy season.

The knowledge and experience acquired through this research programme in, remote sensing, GIS, Global positioning systems, and grid computing when applied in my country, would help us to understand the mechanism of our coastal processes better. It would also promote efficient monitoring of pollution in our waters as we devise our own database systems and plan our settlements properly making it easier to number our streets and locate places. This would help us to stop building in waterways, eventually reducing flooding and saving lives.

The way the various software packages employed specifically in remote sensing and GIS operations work, fascinate me and I hope to learn more about them as well as how to use them. Through this, we can develop appropriate solutions to rectify coastal erosion problems in Ghana and also avert future problems due to anthropogenic activities along the coast. Work has already commenced in Ghana focusing on coastal erosion with Dr. George Wiafe, my mentor, as the Principal Investigator of the project. The URE OMPS 2010 programme is my first research experience and I am learning new things and improving on skills I have already acquired. I plan on participating in more research internships in the future. This would increase my knowledge and equip me with skills, which will help to shape my focus and make me one of the best researchers in my field of study.