As always, host Bob Barrett selects an Academic Minute to air during The Best of Our Knowledge.
Each week this program examines some of the issues unique to college campuses, looks at the latest research, and invites commentary from experts and administrators from all levels of education.
For this week‘s edition (#1304), Bob has selected Pietro Ceccato’s segment that explains how we’re battling earthly plagues from outer space. Pietro Ceccato is a research scientist at Columbia University’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI).
Pietro Ceccato is a research scientist at Columbia University’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI). He originally trained as an agronomist and worked in the Central African Republic to improve agricultural practices. He has worked at the Natural Resources Institute in United Kingdom, where he developed remote-sensing products to monitor forest fires; at the European Commission Joint Research Centre (Italy) developing new products to monitor vegetation status; and at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome to develop early warning systems for desert locust outbreaks, which are now used by the governments of 21 countries in Africa and Asia. He obtained his PhD. from the University of Greenwich, UK. In 2004 he joined IRI, where he leads the Environmental Monitoring Program. His current research includes development of remote-sensing products for human health, agriculture, pest management and natural disasters.