Assistant Professor at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at York University, Canada
While at AIMS, Assefa presented the mathematical theory of viscosity solutions for initial value problems (IVP) of Hamilton-Jacobi equations (HJE) with focus on the existence, consistency and uniqueness of viscosity solutions for HJE- type partial differential equations.
Assefa is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at York University, Canada as of July 2021. Prior to that, he taught at Mekelle University in Ethiopia for 1 year before he moved to South Africa to work as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Mathematical Models and Methods in Biosciences and Bioengineering Lab at the University of Pretoria. As a Postdoctoral fellow, Assefa worked on Mathematical and Statistical Modelling and analyzing novel Transmission-Blocking Interventions (TBIs), especially on transmission-blocking antimalarial Drugs (TBDs) and Transmission-Blocking Vaccines (TBVs). This is in line with several scientists’ new research and innovation efforts towards global malaria control and elimination. He was also involved in other collaborative research on infectious disease modelling such as COVID-19, Cholera, TB, and Hepatitis. He joined Postdoc research after completing a Ph.D. in August 2018 at the University of Buea with a co-supervision from the USA. As part of his Ph.D., he also travelled to the USA as a Pre-doctoral Research Associate for three months. He studied for his Ph.D. while working as a tutor (Teaching Assistant) in AIMS Cameroon. He was selected to be part of a short-term mentorship program in the One Health Cluster UNICEF project. All these and other achievements, he says, are due to the training and skills he acquired from AIMS in 2013-2014.
Earlier in Ethiopia, Assefa graduated with a four-year bachelor’s degree in Mathematics Education from Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia and obtained sponsorship from the Ethiopian Ministry of Education (currently named Ethiopia Ministry of Science and Higher Education) to pursue his MSc in Mathematics at Addis Ababa University with specialization in Functional Analysis and Differential Equations. He heard about AIMS for the first time from his MSc thesis supervisor at Addis Ababa University. Two and a half years later, he joined AIMS Cameroon, and later graduated on Partial Differential Equation Applied in Mathematical Physics, particularly. His AIMS thesis topic was on “Existence and Uniqueness of Viscosity Solutions for Hamilton-Jacobi equation and Application to Optimal Control Theory”.
AIMS impacted Assefa to change his research career from Pure Mathematics to Applied Mathematics (Mathematical Biology and Data Sciences). The different levels of academic educational training and skills he acquired from AIMS, especially in terms of scientific computing programming, applying mathematical tools, techniques, theories to model and analyze real-world phenomena, scientific research writing, effective communication skills, etc. helped him to diversify his research skills and become more performant on the global landscape.
Assefa says new mathematical models have the potential to radically alter drug and vaccine development, regulatory decision-making processes and lead to more affordable, more effective drug therapy and vaccine development as well as deployment. In his future research career, Dr. Assefa is interested in performing collaborations in a wide range of mathematical sciences applications, especially in health-related problems. In the long term, he sees himself working on expanding his expertise in Data Science and Machine Learning (ML) to model and solve real-world systems, particularly in the biological phenomenon and climate.
His research publications and other background can be found at
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0336-7831
UP:https://www.up.ac.za/mathematics-and-applied-mathematics/article/2848056/dr-wa-assefa-woldegerima
His current profile #Alumnioftheweek in the Next Einstein webpage can be found here: