People of Harvest Interview Series: Sheila Baber
NASA Harvest, NASA’s Food Security and Agriculture Program, is a global consortium with contributions from people of many different backgrounds, specialties, and interests. What unites us all is a dedication to bolstering food security around the world through Earth observation applications, and a shared passion for technology that improves lives. We are proud of the work that we do and the people who produce it. This feature introduces the people of NASA Harvest, showcasing the members of our organization and how their efforts support a food-secure future.
Hi! My name is Sheila Baber and I am a PhD student at the University of Maryland in the NASA Harvest Group, using Earth Observation to provide actionable insights on agricultural production and food security. I like to say that I started my career looking upwards at the night sky, only to turn 180° and look downwards towards the Earth. My undergraduate degree was in physics and planetary science, with evenings spent freezing by a telescope or designing satellite missions with engineering students. I’ve always had an interest in agriculture, stemming from childhood stints spent at my grandparents’ farm–and NASA Harvest has given me an incredible opportunity to combine these parallel passions in agrifood systems and space.
What do you do within the NASA Harvest consortium?
I am a bit of a jack-of-all-trades dabbler in different projects. It has been an amazing learning experience to assist Harvest team members in solving technical problems for different application settings. It has rounded my perspective on problems both technical and application-focused in nature. The projects I have been involved with range from cropland mapping at the start of the war in Ukraine, yield prediction in smallholder settings in Africa, a policy paper for USAID in applying yield models in operational settings, and other forms of outreach.
How did you get involved with NASA Harvest?
I was in my junior year as an undergraduate research assistant at the MIT Engineering Systems Lab, analyzing the downstream impacts of Earth Observation data on decision making. Towards the end of spring, my advisor (Dr. Afreen Siddiqi) forwarded me a webinar on Earth Observation and agriculture featuring Inbal (NASA Harvest Director). I was, shall I say, smitten, and sent her an email (it felt like sending an email into a void) asking if she was potentially accepting PhD students. Somehow I got through her inbox and the rest is history.
What do you enjoy about working with the consortium?
I am excited by the phenomenal breadth of stakeholders the consortium interacts with, from individual farmers to precision agriculture companies to national agencies and inter-governmental bodies. I am convinced of Harvest’s multi-scaled approach to tackling the issue of food production: global, national, regional, down to the specific field. Of course, the team members are phenomenal people–they motivate me not only to become a better researcher, but to become a better team player.
Can you highlight one memorable experience that you’ve had with NASA Harvest?
There are too many memorable experiences to choose from! One that comes to mind is when I got to meet some of the people of Harvest for the first time in person at the Living Planet Symposiums 2022 in Bonn. I was new to the team, and happened to be in Europe at the time. NASA Harvest is a global team, with folks logging hours from Maryland, Colorado, France, and even Australia. I am sure folks can relate, post-pandemic, the magic of realizing that remote co-workers are real-life people. As I am in academia, I feel very lucky to be able to meet my colleagues through international conferences, learning together at the same time.
What’s next for you?
I am excited to dive deeper into the Ukraine irrigation detection project. The southern portion of Ukraine is a historically arid region with a heavy dependence on irrigation for agricultural production. Unfortunately, with the Kakhovka dam burst in June 2023 and the ongoing conflict situation, farmers in the region no longer have reliable access to the irrigation infrastructure.
Methodologically, irrigation vs. rainfed field detection is interesting, given the sparsity of ground truth and the biophysical aspect of irrigation signatures detectable from satellite. There are exciting new products on evapotranspiration and soil moisture which can assist with this sort of delineation. I have a renewed drive for this project after a meeting with the State Statistical Services Ukraine in Rome this past spring. It is really insightful to meet with stakeholders and potential end users, to hear firsthand what their needs are. As someone working in the applied sciences, there is a sense of satisfaction in knowing how research can contribute to the broader needs of decision makers.
