Student Profile

Dickson holds a Bachelor of Science Degree with a major in Earth Sciences and minor in Statistics and Physical Geography from the University of Malawi. In 2017, Dickson joined MUST as Cartography Technician and set up the University’s Laboratory of Geoinformation Science and Earth Observation. At MUST, Dickson teaches practical GIS and Remote Sensing using commercial and open-source software. Furthermore, he currently teaches a Cartography and Geovisualisation course. Dickson has also coordinated and facilitated several GIS and Remote Sensing short courses offered by MUST and he is the short course coordinator in the Ndata School of Climate and Earth Sciences.

Since 2020, Dickson has been part of the MUST team working on a WFP Integrated Context Analysis project that uses GIS and Remote Sensing in identifying vulnerable districts and urban locations of Malawi. Dickson also serves as a GIS specialist in the Mapping Biodiversity Priorities project which involves spatial assessment of Malawi’s biodiversity in order to determine the country’s ecosystem threat status. Dickson’s research interest is in applying GIS, Remote Sensing and Machine Learning for Natural Resources Management. In 2021, Dickson presented his research work at the Biodiversity for Malawi 2063 Research Dissemination Conference on the use of Machine Learning and Google Earth Engine for Vegetation Mapping and Monitoring with Mulanje mountain forest reserve as a case study. For his MSc thesis, Dickson seeks to develop a near-real time vegetation monitoring tool using GIS, Remote Sensing and Machine Learning.