Goitom Adhanom
Environmental Hydrologist/Agricultural Water Managment
Seattle,WA
Summary
Environmental and hydrologist with 10+ years of experience in researching and working with soil-plant-water interactions, rain-fed and irrigated agriculture, water use and irrigation scheduling, soil water monitoring instruments, soil solution sampling techniques, surface and groundwater quality monitoring, water resource evaluations, and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Systems (NPDES).
Overview
27
27
years of professional experience
Work History
Delivery and Transportation Services Contractor
Amazon, Lyft Rideshare
10.2018 - Current
Research Fellow
University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN)
10.2014 - 10.2017
- Implemented water quality monitoring studies to support at least three environmental programs for watershed projects funded by the Water Research Commission (South Africa), which resulted in publishing three separate reports that increased in building community awareness of pollution problems and helped identify and restore sites and increased the availability and amount of needed water quality information
- Conducted groundwater sampling and analysis and evaluating groundwater quality
- Understanding of modeling the fate and transport of contaminants in vadose zone
- Mentored up to seven team members in operation and maintenance of continuous water quality measurements
- Conducted field and lab-based investigations on soil hydraulic properties for 2 mining sites to support restoration of mining areas
- As a result, the team published 2 scientific reports with detailed soil hydraulic properties data that provided environmental practitioners the flexibility in planning irrigation and drainage for closing the water balance equation, predicting leaching potential of nutrients, and assessing productive potential of soils
- Published 3 articles on a team/team leader in well-rated scientific journals.
Research Assistant (Postgraduate)
University of Pretoria (UP)
02.2002 - 08.2014
- Assisted research team in reviewing existing guidelines and developing new guidelines for the design and adoption of water saving technologies such as Wetting Front Detector (WFD); the guidelines were simple and effective hence adopted by several small and large-scale commercial farmers in South Africa and other parts of Africa
- Provided technical support related to soil testing, irrigation scheduling, water use efficiency and erosion control to students, research staff members and local farmers
- Trained ~300 small scale farmers and 150+ students in the field of deficit irrigation management and rain-fed agriculture twice per year, utilizing PowerPoint presentations and field demonstrations.
Irrigation Expert
Ministry of Agriculture (MOA)
04.1997 - 12.2001
- Implemented water management technologies including flood-based farming systems (spate irrigation) and water harvesting techniques resulting in crop production level adequate to feed the inhabitants of community irrigation projects and provided a surplus to other parts of Eritrea
- Conducted research as a team at MOA on irrigation water requirements for key food security crops and dissemination and adoption of new technologies
- Coordinated soil and water conservation activities with other departments, international donors and other stakeholders interested in conservation development
- Liaised with the local government on extension services which included disseminating new findings to farming communities and providing advice to farmers from local experts regarding agriculture and farming.
Education
Doctoral (PhD), Agronomy -
University of Pretoria
Pretoria, South AfricaMaster of Applied Science (M.Sc.), Irrigation - undefined
University of Pretoria
Pretoria, South AfricaBachelor of Science (B.Sc.), Soil and Water Conservation - undefined
University of Asmara
Asmara, EritreaSkills
Instrumentations and Measurements: Soil Moisture and Soil Solution
Project Management
Modeling Water flow and contaminant transport in Vadose zone
Surface and Groundwater Quality Monitoring
Water Resource evaluations
Soil-Plant-Water Interactions
Stable Isotope and Discrete Photometric Analyzers
MS Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
Analytical skills
Workauthorization
Fully Work Authorized
Visasponsorshiprequired
No
Professional Development
- Advanced modeling of water flow and solute transport in the vadose zone with HYDRUS, Dec. 6-10, 2010, Skukuza, South Africa.
- Certified Erosion and Sediment Control Lead (CESCL), Building Industry Association (BIA) of Whatcom County- Bellingham, Washington, 09/2018.
Publications
- Adhanom GT, Stirzaker RJ, Lorentz SA, Annandale JG, and Steyn JM (2012) Comparison of methods for determining unsaturated hydraulic conductivity in the wet range to evaluate the sensitivity of wetting front detectors, Water SA 38:67-76.
- Richard J. Stirzaker, Tshepo C. Maeko, John G. Annandale, J. Martin Steyn, Goitom T. Adhanom, Thembeka Mpuisang (2017). Scheduling irrigation from wetting front depth. Agric. Water Manage. 179:306-313.
- Adhanom G, Hughes J, and Odindo A (2018). The effect of anaerobic baffled reactor effluent on nitrogen and phosphorus leaching from four soils in a laboratory column experiment. Water SA 44: 1-12.
Timeline
Delivery and Transportation Services Contractor
Amazon, Lyft Rideshare
10.2018 - Current
Research Fellow
University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN)
10.2014 - 10.2017
Research Assistant (Postgraduate)
University of Pretoria (UP)
02.2002 - 08.2014
Irrigation Expert
Ministry of Agriculture (MOA)
04.1997 - 12.2001
Doctoral (PhD), Agronomy -
University of Pretoria
Master of Applied Science (M.Sc.), Irrigation - undefined
University of Pretoria
Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.), Soil and Water Conservation - undefined
University of Asmara