The Letten Prize Board awards the Letten Prize 2025 to Danielle Wood for her outstanding work using space technology to create meaningful change for people on Earth. Her research evaluates the diverse ways space technologies can contribute to addressing global development goals, ranging from drought to deforestation to food insecurity, and she has pioneered novel techniques for applying space data to these challenges. Her collaborations across Africa empower local young scientists and institutions to harness space-based insights while building long-term capacity through training and education. By combining her expertise in systems engineering and aerospace with a commitment to sustainable development, Dr. Wood embodies the interdisciplinary and purpose-driven spirit of Letten Saugstad is and a highly deserving recipient of the Letten Prize.
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Written by: Elena Krieger, member of the Letten Prize committee and Senior Director of Research and Policy Analysis at Just Solutions.
Danielle Wood is an Associate Professor in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Program in Media Arts & Sciences (MIT Media Lab), where she also holds a joint appointment in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. At MIT, Dr. Wood leads the Space Enabled Research Group, whose mission is “advancing justice in Earth’s complex systems using designs enabled by space.” Dr. Wood received her undergraduate and master’s degrees in Aerospace Engineering, a master’s in Technology Policy, and a PhD in Systems Engineering from MIT. Prior to joining the faculty, she worked at Johns Hopkins University, the Aerospace Corporation, and U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
She returned to MIT in 2018, where she uses space technologies to create meaningful change for people on Earth, ranging from using satellite data to track invasive plant species and deforestation, to expanding global access to space education and technology. Through this work, Dr. Wood contributes to achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals while empowering partners across the world to access and apply advanced technologies to improve local ecology, education, and societal well-being.
Dr. Wood leverages advanced space technologies, such as satellites, to address global challenges and advance justice on Earth. Her research team takes an interdisciplinary approach, blending aerospace and systems engineering, social science, design thinking, art, and data science. Dr. Wood tackles global developmental challenges from multiple angles, including: developing analytical frameworks to characterize and understand complex developmental challenges and solutions; designing novel technical tools that apply space technology and data to better understand land use trends; and collaborating on the ground with partners across the Global South to validate findings and empower teams and countries that have historically lacked access to space technologies. By combining her expertise in systems engineering and aerospace with a commitment to sustainable development, Dr. Wood embodies the interdisciplinary and purpose-driven spirit of Letten Saugstad and the mission of the Letten Prize.
Dr. Wood’s work has, from the outset, been directed at solving real-world challenges in collaboration with stakeholders such as governments, local communities and NGOs. She has analyzed how space and satellite programs are developed and implemented in countries around the world, using these insights to help strengthen the development of space programs across Africa. Her research evaluates the diverse ways space technologies can contribute to addressing global development goals, ranging from drought to deforestation to food insecurity, and she has pioneered novel techniques for applying space data to these challenges.
For example, Dr. Wood has mapped the invasive water hyacinth choking waterways in Lake Nokoué in Benin and collaborated with local partners to integrate these data into a decision-making framework. The partners at Green Keeper Africa are harvesting the invasive species both to mitigate ecosystem damage and generate local economic benefits. In Ghana, she has applied satellite data and machine learning to aid national agencies in identifying and monitoring Sustainable Development Goal indicators, including informal mining, deforestation (often linked to mining), and conservation efforts. In West Africa, Dr. Wood joined a team led by MIT engineer Dr. Stewart Isaacs who combined satellite and ground sensor data to analyze the impact of dust on solar power generation.
Dr. Wood plans to use the funds from the Letten Prize to expand her work in Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and Angola. She will collaborate with space agencies in each country to develop Decision Support Systems that address challenges such as invasive species, destructive mining, and deforestation. She will also conduct fieldwork with local partners in each location. Moreover, the project will host trainings and workshops to equip scientists and researchers with skills in satellite data analysis, mapping techniques, and their application to land use monitoring and the Sustainable Development Goals, thereby building capacity and advancing expertise in these contexts. Dr. Wood also plans for her team to produce a documentary highlighting the careers of African scientists and engineers working to address these pressing challenges.
Dr. Wood’s work embodies the spirit of the Letten Prize through her use of interdisciplinary methods, spanning engineering, design, and the social sciences, to address global environmental and development challenges. She enables the empowerment of partners by expanding access to advanced space technologies while inspiring and training the next generation of scientists. For these contributions, Dr. Wood is a highly deserving recipient of the Letten Prize.