GEBCO/Nippon Foundation Training Programme

The GEBCO community is pleased to welcome the students just beginning the 2012/2013 class of the GEBCO/Nippon Foundation Training Programme.

This 12-month course aims to train a new generation of scientists and hydrographers in ocean bathymetry and leads to a Postgraduate Certificate in Ocean Bathymetry (PCOB).

The course is held at the University of New Hampshire (UNH), USA and is now in its ninth year. Funding for the programme is provided by the Nippon Foundation of Japan.

GEBCO and the Nippon Foundation jointly select six students each year out of many applicants on the basis of a number of criteria such as previous education; support/endorsement of home organization and likelihood of working in ocean mapping upon completion.

Since it began, the course has attracted applicants from many different countries — creating and strengthening GEBCO's links and gathering local expertise from all regions of the world. The course graduates continue to make a valuable contribution to GEBCO's work.

This year's students bring experience from the hydrographic, data management and university communities, from left to right in the above image

• Siong Hui (Stanley) Lim — Staff Officer from the Hydrographic Department of the National Hydrographic Centre, Royal Malaysian Navy.
• Xinh Sy Le — Senior Lecturer in the Maritime Navigation Safety Section. Faculty of Port and Coastal Engineering at the Vietnam Maritime University.
• Eunice Tetteh — Data Manager for the Ghana National Oceanographic Data Center (Marine Fisheries Research Division of the Fisheries Commission, Ghana) at the Ocean Data and Information Network in Africa (ODINAFRICA).
• Karolina Chorzewska — Hydrographic Support Squadron of the Polish Navy; currently pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Gdansk in Earth Sciences and Technical Sciences.
• Takafumi Hashimoto — Ocean Research Laboratory, Technology Planning and International Affairs Division, Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department of the Japan Coast Guard (JHOD).
• Htike Htike — Assistant Lecturer in the River and Coastal Engineering Department of Myanmar Maritime University.