Thomas Toma Tora (PhD)

I am an associate professor (PhD), faculty of meteorology and hydrology, Arba Minch Institute of Water Technology (AWTI), Arba Minch University (AMU), Southern Ethiopia. My major roles in my faculty are teaching graduate students, conducting research in the areas of meteorology, climate (impact, adaptation, and mitigation), agricultural meteorology, and air quality. At AMU, I am the director of the Grant and Collaborative Project Management office. As PI, I'm leading collaborative projects funded by the Mountain Research Initiative, Switzerland and Armeur Hansen Research Institute, Ethiopia.

Thomas Toma Tora (PhD) is a geographer and disaster risk manager with the academic rank of assistant professor since 30, June 2022. He completed his Diploma in Geography (Education) from Awassa College of Teachers Education on 03, July 1999 and Bachelor of Education (BeD) in Geography from the former Debub University Dilla College of Teacher Education and Health Sciences on 25, December 2005. He earned his MSc in Environmental Change Management on 25, June 2015 and PhD in Disaster Risk Management (DRM) on 30, June 2022 from the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Arba Minch University. He has been an important role player in numerous governmental organizations and had various professional duties before joining Arba Minch University. At the district level, he served as a secondary school teacher, director, and supervisor, a deputy office head of education, a coordinator of the Road Safety Certification Core Process and a representative expert of Transport Provision, Organization, and Operation Core Process. At a zone level, he served as a performer and coordinator of the Teaching Learning and Assessment Core Process in the former Gamo Gofa Zone Education Department. Concerning the higher education expertise, he has been instructing at colleges and university. Furthermore, he has served as a member of the board of examiners for 18 master’s theses and 2 PhD dissertations since October 2022 at Arba Minch and Wolaita Sodo Universities. Besides, he has been a member of committee-based responsibilities for a college-level competition committee as a secretary; promotion, exam preparation as well as curriculum development, curriculum review, and curriculum revision in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Arba Minch University in the ad-hoc and permanent modalities. Currently, he is instructing undergraduate and postgraduate courses, co-advising 6 PhD candidates, conducting independent and collaborative research, and sole and co-author in indexed open-access national and international journals publishing 14 scientific articles while others are underway to be published. He has received 25 signed reviewer certificates and online recognitions for conducting 28 anonymous peer-reviews in national and international journals since 2021. He is a team leader in the collaborative research underway by Arba Minch University, the Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission (EDRMC), and the European Union Decentralizing Disaster Risk Reduction (EU-DDRR).

His areas of interest include in/vulnerability, sustainability, hazards and disasters, disaster risk management, resilience building, early warning systems, livelihoods and basic livelihood security components (education, health, economy, food, habitat, community participation/empowerment), capital assets, food in/security instances both in the urban and rural scenarios, food systems, food sovereignty, climate variability/change, environment, development, and population among others. He has been an important figure in his career for more than 25 years.