Background
Joseph was born in Gem Kathomo, Kenya.
Joseph was born in Gem Kathomo, Kenya.
Joseph studied at the University of Nairobi (Kenya) where he obtained a Bachelor of Science in Surveying in 1994 followed by a Master of Science in Surveying in 1996. He proceeded to Stuttgart University (Germany) where he obtained a Master of Science in Geodesy in 1999 and a Doctor of Philosophy in Geodesy in 2001. Between 2002-2004, he was at Kyoto University (Japan) for post-doctoral studies in Satellite Environmental Monitoring. In 2008 he studied at Murdoch University (Australia) and received a Postgraduate Diploma degree in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
Professor Joseph Awange joined Spatial Sciences (School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Curtin University, Australia) in 2006 under a Curtin Research Fellowship and concurrently undertook the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt (AvH) Fellowship at the Geodetic Institute (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany) having been awarded the Australian 2008–2011 Ludwig Leichhardt Memorial Fellowship for experienced researchers. In 2015, he won all the three major Fellowship Awards: Alexander von Humboldt (Germany), Japan Society of Promotion of Science (Japan) and Brazil Frontier of Science (Brazil) to carry out research in those countries. At Curtin University, he is currently a Professor of Environmental Geoinformatics engaged in teaching and research having attracted more than $2.5M worth of research grants. He obtained his BSc and MSc degrees in Surveying from the University of Nairobi (Kenya), and was also awarded a merit scholarship by the German Academic Exchange Program (DAAD), which facilitated his obtaining a second MSc degree and PhD in Geodesy at Stuttgart University (Germany). In 2002–2004, he was awarded the prestigious Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellowship to pursue postdoctoral research at Kyoto University (Japan). Prof Awange attained International Editorial role in Springer Earth Science Books and has authored more than 22 scholarly research and teaching books with the prestigious Springer International publishers and more than 200 peer-reviewed high impact journal publications (in e.g., Remote Sensing of Environment, Journal of Climate, Climatic Change, Advances in Water Resources, International Journal of Climatology, and Journal of Hydrology among others). His main research areas that have attracted media coverage (e.g., Environmental Monitor) are in the fields of (i) Environmental Geoinformatics: Sensing of changes in stored freshwater (surface, underground, vegetation, and soil moisture) and Climate Change using satellites (GRACE/GRACE-FO, GNSS, Landsat, Sentinel-2, Precipitation and Altimetry, etc), reanalysis (ERA5, MERRA-2, etc) and hydroclimate models (GLDAS, WGHM, AWRA, etc). These satellites, reanalysis and hydroclimate models are employed to face the emerging challenges of the 21st century posed by increased food insecurity and extreme hydroclimatic conditions, e.g., severity and frequency of droughts in Australia and Greater Horn of Africa (GHA), and the changing monsoon characteristics in Asia and Africa leading to floods. Indeed, Africa, Asian and Australian continents are experiencing impacts of climate change that is affecting their water potential and food security, thereby worsening the situation for its inhabitants who rely heavily on rain-fed agriculture. Environmental Geoinformatics, thus enables a wide understanding of natural and human systems through the use of “big data” that is both spatial and temporal in nature, and (ii) Mathematical Geosciences: Hybrid-symbolic solutions that delivers hybrid symbolic-numeric computations (HSNC), which is a large and growing area at the boundary of mathematics and computer science and currently an active area of research (for details, see https://research.curtin.edu.au/supervisor/dr-joseph-awange/).
Lake Net
International Association of Geodesy
American Geophysical Union
International Association of Impact Assessment