
Haimanote Bayabil, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Water Resources
Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department
Tropical Research and Education Center
University of Florida
hbayabil@ufl.edu | 786-217-9253
Dr. Haimanote Bayabil's research and extension program at UF/IFAS TREC primarily focuses on developing practical and sustainable water management practices that conserve water and improve water quality in agricultural and urban areas.
Other Team Members
Research Interests: Niguss ‘King’ Solomon is a research coordiantor in the UF/IFAS Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering. Niguss did his PhD at Czech university of Life science, Prague in Exploitation, and conservation of Natural resources. Niguss’ research interest is mainly focussed on the effect of organic amendments on the properties of soil and plant growth. Niguss will be involved in different projects through applying and sharing his knowledge in relation to soil organic amendments. Niguss is also interested in the application of machine learning in agricultural data analysis.

Niguss Solomon, Ph.D.
Research Coordinator II

Mulatu Liyew Berihun, Ph.D
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Research Interests: Mulatu did his PhD in Global Arid Land Science at Tottori University, Japan. He is an Assistant Professor of Hydrology and Water Resources Management at Bahir Dar Institute of Technology, Bahir Dar University (Ethiopia). He is interested in the research themes of Hydrology and Watershed Management, mainly focused on modeling the impacts of land use/cover, climate change, and land management practices on ecosystem services such as streamflow/runoff, sediment load/soil erosion, water quality, nutrient and phosphorus loads, and crop productivities. Further, he is interested in examining how climate change or extremes impacts irrigation water management under different land management scenarios. His current duties as a Postdoctoral Researcher include but are not limited to conducting field and greenhouse experiments in hot and humid climate conditions, collecting soil, plant, and water samples, processing samples in the field and laboratory, data analysis and interpretation using appropriate statistical methods, literature review, writing manuscripts for journal publication, contribute to proposal development and project report write up on research related to soil-water-plant relationships and developing efficient nutrient and water resource management practices.
Research Interests: Integrating hydrologic and data sciences with agriculture, Kelsey seeks to address global energy-food-water demands through Controlled Environment Agriculture. Her current research is in developing novel irrigation water treatment and reuse processes which aim to achieve pathogen disinfection, nutrient recovery, and energy savings. Kelsey aspires to bring food and water security to urban communities both locally and internationally.


Fitsum Tilahun
Ph.D. Student
Research Interests: Fitsum's research interests focus on hydrologic modeling, river basin management, surface, and groundwater interaction modeling, climate change impact studies, remote sensing hydrology, land cover change detection and scaling, and precision agriculture. Currently, he is working on a research topic, entitled “Evaporation Trend Over South Florida”.
Research Interests: Sam has an MS in software engineering and a BS in is in computer science and has several years of multidisciplinary industrial work experience in electrical, electronics, and computer science domains. His research interest includes precision agriculture, applications of sensors and IoT in agriculture, and big data analytics.

Syed Shaham ‘Sam’ Madni
Visiting Research Scholar

Muhammad Sohail Waqas, PE
Visiting Research Scholar
Research Interests: Sohail received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. (Hons.) degrees in Agricultural Engineering from the Department of Irrigation and Drainage, University of Agriculture Faisalabad. Sohail is an Assistant Director (Agricultural Engineering) in the Agriculture Department, Government of the Punjab - Pakistan, and registered as a professional engineer with the Pakistan Engineering Council. He is enthusiastic about multidisciplinary research studies and has published articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. His research interests are mainly focused on investigating the effects of different irrigation schedules on crop water productivity and crop yield. His research interests include agricultural water management, irrigation science, water resources development and management, watershed management, and precision agriculture.
FORMER MEMBERS
Name and Position | Current Position |
---|---|
Fikadu Wolidehanna (Ph.D. student, 2019-2022) | Postdoctoral Researcher, TREC, University of Florida |
Saroop Sandhu, Ph.D. (Research Coordiantor II) | Verification Scientist at SCS GLobal Services |
Thais Souza, Ph.D. (Visiting Postdoctoral Researcher) | Assistant Professor of Agronomy at the University Federal of Pernambuco, Brazil |
Bewuket Tefera (MS student, 2021-2022) | |
Christian Bartell (Engineer I) | Biological Scientist II, Soil & Water Sciences Department, University of Florida |
Abdelmoneim Z. Mohamed, Ph.D. (Ag Scientist IV) | Research Scientist at UC DAVIS |
Ashok Alva, Ph.D. (Engineer I) | |
Reginald Nicholas Sylney (Intern) | |
Stephanie N Torres (Intern) |
