Rate My Professor Assefa Melesse

Assefa Melesse is a Distinguished University Professor of water resources engineering in the Department of Earth and Environment at Florida International University, contributing to Geoscience through his expertise in hydrologic sciences. He earned his Ph.D. in Agricultural and Biological Engineering with a concentration in Hydrologic Sciences and minors in Environmental Engineering and Remote Sensing from the University of Florida in 2002, where his dissertation focused on spatially distributed storm runoff modeling using remote sensing and GIS. He also holds an M.E. in Agricultural and Biological Engineering with a concentration in GIS from the University of Florida in 2000, an M.Eng.Sc. in Agricultural Engineering from the National University of Ireland in 1991, and a B.Sc. in Agricultural Engineering from Alemaya University in 1986. Additionally, he completed graduate certificates in Interdisciplinary GIS and GPS for Planners from the University of Florida in 2002 and 2001, respectively.

Melesse joined Florida International University in 2004 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth and Environment, advancing to Associate Professor in 2008 and Professor in 2014. Prior roles include Assistant Professor and Research Assistant Professor at the Earth System Science Institute, University of North Dakota from 2002 to 2004, Research Assistant at the University of Florida from 1998 to 2002, and various faculty positions at Alemaya University in Ethiopia from 1986 to 1998. His research specializations encompass spatially distributed hydrologic modeling, ecohydrology, river basin management, sediment dynamics, surface and groundwater interactions, climate change impacts on water resources, and integration of remote sensing, GIS, and hydrological models. Geographic foci include the Nile River Basin, Mara River Basin, South Florida Everglades, and Caribbean watersheds. He has edited key books such as Nile River Basin: Hydrology, Climate and Water Use (2011), Evaporation and Evapotranspiration: Measurements and Estimations (2012, with Wossenu Abtew), Nile River Basin: Ecohydrological Challenges, Climate Change and Hydropolitics (2013, with Wossenu Abtew and Shimelis Getu Setegn), and Landscape Dynamics, Soil and Hydrological Processes in Varied Climates (2015, with Wossenu Abtew). Notable publications include Flow Regime Classification and Hydrological Characterization of Ethiopian Rivers (2015), Toward Connecting Subtropical Algal Blooms to Freshwater Nutrient Sources (2015, with Tara Blakey), and Operational Actual Wetland Evapotranspiration Estimation for the Everglades Using MODIS Imagery (2015). Melesse has received the Jefferson Science Fellowship for climate security (2023-2024), Fulbright Scholar award for research and teaching (2011-2012), Faculty Award for Excellence in Advising and Mentorship (2013), and listings in Who’s Who in Science and Engineering (2004/2005, 2006/2007), Who’s Who in America (2007), and Who’s Who in American Education (2007). His work advances policy on climate security, Nile resource management, and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam through scientific data integration.