Asmamaw Legass is an Assistant Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies (specialization in Environment and Natural Resources Management) at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. He teaches Soil Geography, Agro-ecology and Framing systems, Population Geography and Settlement, Terrain Analysis and Land Use planning, Environment and Sustainable Development, Global Environmental Issues for undergraduate students; and Population, Environment and Economic Development; Soils, Land Use and Land Degradation and Environmental Analysis for postgraduate students. He has worked on funded projects investigating land use/cover dynamics and their implications on land degradation, sustainable land management and rural livelihoods, sustainable agricultural development, and migration dynamics. Dr. Legass is highly interested to understand the pathways to identifying research gaps, application of models and theories for conducting research and means of disseminating research results to the local community to enable in contributing to national development agenda and goals.

With respect to the DOWN2EARTH project, Asmamaw will contribute to field data collection and synthesis with respect to rural community surveys and interviews.