Elfatih Ali Babiker Eltahir (, born October 1961) is a Sudanese-American Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, H.M. King

Bhumibol Bhumibol Adulyadej ( th, ภูมิพลอดุลยเดช; ; ; (Sanskrit: ''bhūmi·bala atulya·teja'' - "might of the land, unparalleled brilliance"); 5 December 192713 October 2016), conferred with the title King Bhumibol the Great ...

Professor of Hydrology and Climate, and Director of the MIT- UM6P Research Program at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

Early life and education

Elfatih Eltahir was born in

Omdurman Omdurman (standard ar, أم درمان ''Umm Durmān'') is a city in Sudan. It is the most populated city in the country, and thus also in the State of Khartoum. Omdurman lies on the west bank of the River Nile, opposite and northwest of the ...

, Sudan, in October 1916 to Ali Babiker Eltahir and Nafisa Hassan Musa. He earned a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

(First Class Honours) in civil engineering from the

University of Khartoum The University of Khartoum (U of K) ( ar, جامعة الخرطوم) is a public university located in Khartoum, Sudan. It is the largest and oldest university in Sudan. UofK was founded as Gordon Memorial College in 1902 and established in 195 ...

n 1985. He won the university Merghani Hamza Prize. He then completed a

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

(First Class Honours) in

hydrology Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and environmental watershed sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is calle ...

at the

National University of Ireland The National University of Ireland (NUI) ( ga, Ollscoil na hÉireann) is a federal university system of ''constituent universities'' (previously called ''university college, constituent colleges'') and ''recognised colleges'' set up under t ...

in 1988, and winning the McLaughlin Award. Eltahir then completed another Master of Science in

meteorology Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not ...

and a

Doctor of Science Doctor of Science ( la, links=no, Scientiae Doctor), usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D., or D.S., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries, "Doctor of Science" is the degree used f ...

(Sc.D.) in Hydro-climatology, both, in 1993 from the

(MIT). His project was about the “interactions of hydrology and climate in the

Amazon basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivi ...

”, which was funded by the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Fellowship in Global Change Research and was supervised by Rafael L. Bras.

Career and research

Eltahir continued working at MIT after his Sc.D. as a Post-Doctoral associate before being promoted to Assistant Professor in 1994. In 1995, he became the Gilbert Winslow Career Development Chair (1995-1998). In 1998, he became an Associate Professor and then a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering in 2003. He is the H.M. King

Professor of Hydrology and Climate, and the Director of the MIT-

Mohammed VI Polytechnic University Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (French: Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique, commonly abbreviated as UM6P) is a Moroccan non-profit private research university. Its main campus is located in Ben Guerir, near Marrakech, with branches in Raba ...

(UM6P) Research Program which focuses on

sustainable development Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The des ...

in Africa. Eltahir's research focuses on developing numerical models, that are verified against satellite observations, to study how global climate change may impact society through changes in water availability and disease outbreaks, especially in Africa and Asia.

Award and honours

Eltahir received NASA’s New Investigator Award in 1996, US Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 1997, and Kuwait Prize in Applied Sciences for his work on Climate Change in 1999. He was elected a Fellow of the

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's act ...

(AGU) in 2008, and then received AGU's Hydrologic Sciences Award in 2017. In 2023, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), and a Fellow of The World Academy of Science (TWAS) for the advancement of science in

developing countries A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...

. Eltahir is a member of the

American Meteorological Society The American Meteorological Society (AMS) is the premier scientific and professional organization in the United States promoting and disseminating information about the Atmospheric sciences, atmospheric, Oceanography, oceanic, and Hydrology, hydr ...

, the

Royal Meteorological Society The Royal Meteorological Society is a long-established institution that promotes academic and public engagement in weather and climate science. Fellows of the Society must possess relevant qualifications, but Associate Fellows can be lay enthus ...

, the

American Society of Civil Engineers American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

, the Sudan Engineering Society, and the

Sudanese National Academy of Sciences Sudanese or Sudanic may refer to: *pertaining to the country of Sudan **the people of Sudan, see Demographics of Sudan *pertaining to Sudan (region) **Sudanic languages **Sudanic race, subtype of the Africoid racial category See also *Sudanese Civ ...

Personal life

Eltahir has six siblings, and married Shahinaz Ahmed Badri in December 1991. He has two children, Nafisa (

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

’ Correspondent for Sudan and Egypt) and Mohamed.

Books

* * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eltahir, Elfatih Living people MIT School of Engineering faculty 21st-century American engineers Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni University of Khartoum alumni Fellows of the American Geophysical Union Members of the Sudanese National Academy of Sciences TWAS fellows 1961 births Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering American people of Sudanese descent