Mastawesha Misganaw Engdaw

Mastawesha Misganaw Engdaw is a Postdoctoral Fellow based in Nairobi, Kenya, working at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT since 2023.

He commenced his career as an academic and research staff member at Jimma University in the Department of Natural Resources Management. Subsequently, from 2018 to 2022, Mastawesha worked as a Scientist in the "Climate Change Uncertainties, Thresholds, and Coping Strategies" project, funded by the Austrian Science Fund at the Wegner Centre for Climate and Global Change. Before joining the Alliance, Mastawesha has gained valuable experience within the United Nations system. He served as a Consultant for the Space4Climate Action program of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) in Vienna, Austria, focusing on the application of space-based technologies in climate action. Furthermore, he has been recognized as a Young Professional Feature of the Space4water program of the UNOOSA and the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water since 2022.

Mastawesha has multidisciplinary educational background, holding a BSc in Natural Resources Management from Jimma University and MSc in Geo-information Science and Earth Observation for Water Resources and Environmental Management from ITC, University of Twente, the Netherlands. Additionally, he earned another MSc in Climate Change from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and a PhD in Physical Climate Science from the University of Graz, Austria.

Mastawesha’s research interest encompass assessing changes in high-risk climate extremes, attributing climate/hydrological extreme events, attributing impacts of climate change, loss and damage, assessing regional climate changes and climate services.