Asfawossen Asrat

Professor, Addis Ababa University
Prof. Asfawossen Asrat Kassaye is currently Professor of Geology at the School of Earth Sciences and Engineering of the Botswana International University of Science and Technology in Botswana (BIUST). He has served the Addis Ababa University (AAU) from the rank of Graduate Assistant to Full Professor during the 1993-2021 period. He is a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences (FAAS), Ethiopian Academy of Sciences (FEAS), and was Young Affiliate of the World Academy of Sciences, TWAS (2012-2017). He received his PhD from the University of Henri Poincare, Nancy (France) in Geochemistry and Petrology in 2002. He has been actively engaged in teaching both at postgraduate and undergraduate programs. He has been actively engaged in both fundamental and applied research and has completed several research projects funded by the National Science Foundation (USA), Natural Environmental Research Council, and the Royal Society (UK), Collaborative Research Center (Germany), Addis Ababa University and Ministry of Sciences and Technology (Ethiopia), among others; has authored/co-authored about 135 peer-reviewed publications in a wide variety of the Earth Sciences fields including on Paleoclimatology-Paleoenvironment, Quaternary Geology, Petrology-Geochemistry in high impact journals including Nature, Nature Geosciences, Nature Climate Change, Nature Communications, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Geology, Scientific Reports, Quaternary Science Reviews, Journal of Petrology, Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta, Journal of Quaternary Sciences, Quaternary International, Quaternary Geochronology, and The Holocene. He has also authored 2 textbooks, and one popular book entitled “Geotourism in Ethiopia”. He has supervised/is supervising more than 50 Masters and 8 PhD Theses projects. He is actively engaged in professional activities as a member and leader of many national and international professional associations, and has served as the Vice President of the Geological Society of Africa (2008-2016), founding member and President of the Eastern Africa Quaternary Research Association (2013-2017); member of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Geomorphologists (2013-2017); member of the Scientific Steering Committee of the Past Global Changes (PAGES) (2016-2021); and member of the UNESCO Global Geoparks Council (2016-2022). He served as an Associate Editor of Quaternary International (2015-2018) and is currently Co-Editor-in-Cheif of Earth-Science Reviews and Editor of Scientific African, Associate Editor of Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie (Annals of Geomorphology) and Geoheritage. He has reviewed several research articles in various journals (such as Nature Communications, Scientific Reports, QSR, Sedimentology) and has Guest edited special issues of the Journal of African Earth Sciences, Quaternary International, Annals of Geomorphology and Quaestiones Geographicae. He is actively engaged in outreach activities and community services. He consulted several development, construction, engineering and mining firms as well as government institutions. In addition to his active teaching, research, professional, community and outreach services, he has served BIUST and the AAU in various academic administration positions including as Head of Department, Mining and Geological Engineering, BIUST (2023-Present); and Academic Programs Officer (2004-2006), Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs (2006-2008), and Chief Academic Officer for Research (2011-2012), all in AAU.