Dr. Belay Demoz, Professor/Director of the Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET), University of Maryland, Baltimore County, presented a Maniac lecture entitled, "My Journey from the Horn of Africa to NASA!" Belay shared lessons learned from his unlikely, but rewarding journey from the Horn of Africa that is characterized by historic drought, civil war, geopolitics, and luck (a lot of it) and the struggle to pay it back to society through integration of science, education, and service. It is a journey that benefited from good people, unexpected opportunities, good advice and choices he made along the way (some that he did not know were good at the time), including becoming an atmospheric physicist.

https://youtu.be/-bk1mVMu5VA