Episode 309 – International Space Bridge Series #1 – A conversation with Deputy Director General at the Philippine Space Agency

Interview with Dr Gay Jane P. Perez, Deputy Director General for Space Science and Technology (DDG-SST), Republic of the Philippines – Office of the President – Philippine Space Agency.

Dr. Perez serves as the Deputy Director General for Space Science and Technology (DDG-SST) at the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA). She is also a Professor at the Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology of the University of the Philippines Diliman.

She was a postdoctoral fellow at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (2010-2011). She is a graduate of the National Institute of Physics at the University of the Philippines Diliman, from which she received Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics (2003), Master of Science (2005), and Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (2009).

Dr. Perez has led various programs on satellite development in the Philippines as well as other projects that utilized satellite and remotely sensed data for environmental applications and climate studies.

Dr. Perez is a recipient of The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service (TOWNS) Award (2019) and is the first Filipino woman to receive the ASEAN-US Science Prize for Women (2018).

Her research interests include Earth observation satellite product development, drought monitoring and forecasting, forest change detection, land cover/land use change, other satellite remote sensing applications for the environment, seasonal and climate prediction, climate change and variability, complex systems, and interdisciplinary applications of Physics.

In this podcast, Dr Perez shared the latest developments at the Philippine Space Agency, and some of the highlights she presented at GSTC 2022 (Global Science and Technology Conference 2022). 

She touched on the efforts to build the downstream Space Technology infrastructure, including the challenges to ingest the immense volume of data gathered from satellites, and turned them into meaningful insights in applications ranging from hazard management to drought management.

Dr Perez also gave the listeners a glimpse into the evolution of the Philippine upstream activities, including the launch of the first Philippine satellite Diwata 1 in 2016, to today’s development of CubeSat(s) for research.

Wrapping up the podcast, Dr Perez pointed to the importance of capacity building and international partnerships, echoing the words of many in this fast growing sector: “if you want to run fast, do it alone; if you want to run far, we need to do it together.”

Recorded 10th February 2022, Singapore/Philippines Standard Time 11am. 

Interview as part of the ASITII International Space Bridge Series 2022 – Register interest at www.asitti.space