 Hello to everyone. My name is Nidal Gesoum. I am professor of physics and astronomy at the American University of Sharjah here in the United Arab Emirates. I have done astrophysics research in many different parts of the world including having spent a couple of years at the NASA Research Center. I continue to do research here with colleagues from the UAE, from the Gulf, from Europe and from the US. And my most exciting activity is when I involve students to have them discover space, discover the cosmos and participate in research that can uncover new things in the world. Well the UAE has been investing major efforts and resources into space industry and space science. For the past 10 years or more the UAE invested money into satellites, for example. So there were the Dubai SAT-1, Dubai SAT-2, YASAT and now they are preparing the Khalifa SAT. So there was a lot of space technology and then in the last two years or so there has been this announcement of a Mars mission. Mission to Mars, the hope probe that is going to be sent in 2020 arriving over there in 2021. So the UAE has spent and has launched major efforts and major initiatives. Why should that be? People always ask why are we spending so much money into space, discovering things that do not have any application in our lives? Why should I invest in initiatives or in projects that are not solving direct world problems such as epidemics, such as famines, such as climate change problems and all kinds of real sort of day-to-day life problems? And I always say that first of all there are a lot of applications to what we do in space, to what we do here on Earth. So for example the satellites that I mentioned, all of them have applications that are actually exclusively and solely targeting the Earth here. So we monitor what happens on the ground, if there is for example a sandstorm, if there is any planning for some project, how we're going to lay down the framework for building this or building that, the telecommunication, all of that is done by satellite and cannot be done otherwise. So even if we want to develop things here on Earth we have no choice but to go to space and do things from space. Secondly, there are many unplanned applications to what things happen in space programs because space requires nanotechnology, technology requires atomic science, requires radiation science, requires chemistry, requires medicine. So all things that we need to develop in order to do space program. And as we develop these things there are spin-offs as we call them, sort of side applications to what happens here on Earth. Thirdly, because that is the best field for innovation. If we want the UAE to be among the innovating nations, not just buying technology from somewhere, applying it, using it, but starting to innovate. The best field for innovation is when you launch projects into space because that requires engineering, it requires science, it requires project management, it requires all kinds of avenues and people face problems that they had not met before. That's when you are required to be creative and to become innovative. So if as we understand and we are beginning to see the UAE wants to make this quantum leap and be among the nations that develop new technologies, that participate in discoveries, etc., then I think the space venue is the best to be invested in.