Prestigious Honors
2019 — 2024
Al-Sumait Prize for African Development
Awarded $500,000 for revolutionary work using satellite technology and AI to transform agricultural practices across Africa — directly impacting millions of smallholder farmers.
TED Fellowship
Selected as a 2025 TED Fellow for exceptional courage, brilliance, and impact — translating satellite data into practical solutions for African farmers.
Global Recognition · 2025Golden Jubilee Gold Medal
Uganda's highest civilian honor for exceptional contributions to national development and international excellence in agricultural technology.
Africa Food Prize
Africa's premier award for outstanding contributions to agricultural innovation and food security outcomes.
2020Individual Excellence Award
International recognition for pioneering satellite data work in African agricultural monitoring and Earth observation science.
Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship
Prestigious fellowship recognizing African scholars making significant contributions to higher education and capacity building across Africa.
Milestones
RECOGNITION
Assistant Professor Catherine Nakalembe named a 2025 TED Fellow and Bellagio Center Resident for pioneering satellite intelligence work in African food security.
Read about TED Fellowship →
EXPANSION
NASA Harvest and partners strengthen agricultural monitoring infrastructure in Ethiopia, extending satellite-driven crop intelligence to new East African regions.
Read about NASA Harvest Ethiopia →
AWARD
Dr. Nakalembe receives the 2022 Al-Sumait Prize at Kuwait's Royal Palace — first ceremony hosted there in a decade — for contributions to food security across Eastern and Southern Africa.
Read about Kuwait ceremony →
REACH
Xylem Lab's SatLabel Squad presents research at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall 2024 Meeting, showcasing advances in satellite-driven agricultural mapping.
Read about AGU 2024 →
SCIENCE
OpenMapFlow presented at AAAI 2023. Project-driven capacity building with Centre de Suivi Écologique (CSE) in Senegal produces a 2022 cropland extent map across key agro-ecological zones.
LEADERSHIP
Dr. Nakalembe delivers the keynote at Women in Data Science (WiDS) Cambridge 2022, addressing machine learning and satellite data in global agricultural equity.
FOOD PRIZE
Dr. Catherine Nakalembe named a 2020 Africa Food Prize winner, recognized for exceptional contributions to food security and agricultural development across the continent.
In The Press
"How satellites are helping change the way data is gathered — and can be used to fight the global food crisis."
"Bridging the information gap for smallholder farmers using Earth observation data."
"How machine learning and satellite data are changing the game for farmers across African countries."
THE WORLD IS WATCHING THE SHIFT IN
ECOLOGICAL ACCOUNTABILITY.