Baodi SAMSON, from Ghana, was selected for the opportunity to work at the LPG (Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique de Nantes, University of Nantes, France) for a Master project entitled “Analysis of the lithology of the ancient Martian crust based on orbital data”.

Many applications have been received for this opportunity, which again demonstrates the interest in Planetary and Space Sciences of many students in Africa. The AFIPS naturally hopes to provide more opportunities of this kind in future, and invite unsuccessful applicants to keep in touch with AFIPS members for future opportunities.

Boadi SAMSON is a geophysicist and GIS specialist, who studied first at the University of Development Studies in Ghana. He has experiences in Language programming (Python) and has also other computer skills (ArcGIS, ENVI, ErMapper), which will be useful for his research project.

Boadi  SAMSON is now based at the University of Twente (Faculty of Earth Systems Analysis (ITC), Netherlands, studying for a Master’s degree focused in Geo-Information Science, and Earth Observation with specialization in geological remote sensing. He will start to work in Nantes from March, 2018, for a duration of 4 months, under the supervision of Nicolas MANGOLD, and in collaboration David BARATOUX (IRD, GET, Toulouse) and hopefully with other participants of the ANR “MARS-PRIME”, that is funding his visit in Nantes (LPG).

The AFIPS wishes him a successful visit in Nantes and successful research on Mars. Congratulations !