PhD student, Geographic Information Science, Arizona State University
Joseph Karanja (pictured) was born and raised in a region of Western Kenya dominated by rain-dependent agriculture—corn and sugarcane were the two primary crops. “I saw firsthand the impacts attributable to climate change,” said Karanja. “I saw erratic rainfall devastate communities. Whenever we had erratic rain it meant reduced productivity for the farmers,” said Karanja.
The experience motivated Karanja to pursue first a bachelor’s in environmental planning and management, and then a Master’s in Environmental Science in Kenya. As part of his studies, he created technical drawings and plans by hand, which he said could be a hectic process. “When I was introduced to GIS and remote sensing and I saw how easy it was to generate maps and plans this created an interest in advancing my knowledge and skills.”
With help from friends, Karanja navigated the gauntlet of e-mails and application requirements to secure a place in a master’s program at Georgia State University in Atlanta. On the first day of class, he was asked to create a map using GIS. “I raised up my hand and told the instructor that I didn’t know anything related to the software and that most likely the class would be difficult for me,” said Karanja. “It was surprising and scary to me initially, but over time I worked hard and caught up with the rest of the class.”
Karanja had a clear need for the GIS skills. “I was really interested in the intersectionality of disasters—capturing disaster impacts and socioeconomic attributes that resulted in disproportionate hazard impacts. And hence there was a need for me to visualize these hazards and associated impacts. There was also a need to have an interdisciplinary lens.”
After completing his masters, Karanja went on to pursue a Ph.D. in Geographic Information Science at Arizona State University with a dissertation titled “Implications of Model Types and Input Variables for Understanding Heat-Health Outcomes.”
While a Ph.D. student, Karanja found out about the IDEAAL DR2 Fellowship through a weekly digest of the Bill Anderson Fund, an organization that also supports him as a Fellow. He applied to IDEAAL DR2 and was accepted.
Currently the IDEAAL DR2 Fellowship provides Karanja multiple benefits including mentorship. “I am happy to report I was connected to one of the scientists I really admire whose research closely aligns with my own—Eric Tate from Princeton. Out of this mentorship we have been able to submit A NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] Climate and Global Change Post-Doctoral Fellowship application,” said Karanja. The prestigious NOAA fellowship supports innovative research from a range of disciplines aimed at improving understanding of changes associated with climate.
“One of the main things I got out of my fellowship was being prompted to think critically, systematically and in a structured way about your skills, how you want to promote yourself, and how to think about your goals and aspirations in a comprehensive manner.”
The IDEAAL DR2 Fellowship also provided Karanja research support through a $5,000 grant.
“I’ve learned a lot through the IDEAAL Fellowship,” said Karanja, pointing to implementation science, the RAPID facility, and incidence command systems. Through the IDEAAL DR2 Fellowship Karanja was able to get seven certifications on topics ranging from reciprocity, positionality and broader ethical implications in hazards and disaster research to an introduction to the National Incident Management System. “All these are things I didn’t know so much about despite being in the disaster field,” Karanja said.
“One of the main things I got out of my fellowship was being prompted to think critically, systematically and in a structured way about your skills, how you want to promote yourself, and how to think about your goals and aspirations in a comprehensive manner,” said Karanja. As part of the fellowship he was introduced to Individual Development Plans which involve assessment of one’s skills, thinking critically and creatively about goals and a comprehensive framework for progress assessment. “And the Individual Development Plans cover academic, career and personal goals, which to me covers most of the key aspects of a Ph.D. experience,” said Karanja.
Another primary benefit to the fellowship that Karanja points to is the networking with peers. “I was assigned to a cohort of five other inaugural fellows and we meet twice a week to support each other on writing,” said Karanja. “Through these meetings we are able to create a framework for accountability and transparency for the goals that we’ve set and then support each other on our writing and research.”
Karanja appreciates working with other experts outside his immediate field. “Disasters are really complex,” Karanja said. “One has to embrace interdisciplinarity and collaborative scholarly works. For instance, in my field I always thought that once you visualized hot spots or cold spots associated with a disaster that was sufficient. But then I realized there’s a need to go beyond that because these are not fine-scale representations. I’m now collaborating with other researchers who focus on physiological modeling — so how does the body respond to certain heat exposure given specific physiological profiles? Such questions can not be captured from the visualizations.”
At the end of the day, it’s critical to Karanja that his work have relevance for communities. “One thing I have learned with some difficulty is that all these scientific products that we produce need to have some policy relevance and relevance to the community. Sometimes I think as a student or as a scientist or as a scholar you are trained to communicate with your peers but not really communicate to the communities who are the frontlines of these disasters,” said Karanja.
Although only in his fourth year, Karanja hopes to complete his Ph.D. later this year. Whatever comes next, he plans to maintain his focus on interdisciplinary, community-relevant science. “I enjoy deriving insights from the data that can help solve some of the challenges of our time,” said Karanja. “I have seen firsthand the impacts of disasters, and so I want to be part and parcel of the people creating solutions.”