SAAO astronomy and outreach
Abiy originally hails from a small town called Debrezeit (mount olive), very close to the great East African Rift valley in Ethiopia. He finished his PhD in Astrophysics at University of Cape Town (UCT) in December 2011 and currently has a joint research fellow position at Las Cumbres Observatory Global Network (LCOGT) and the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO). His time is divided between education (engaging the public in astronomy and science) and doing his personal research. His research interest primarily lies in extragalactic astronomy especially on luminous and ultra luminous infrared galaxies using South African Large Telescope (SALT) and various imaging and spectroscopic surveys. He also has a research interest in time domain astronomy and he plans to use the LCOGT and SAAO facilities for that.
Abiy no longer works at Las Cumbres Observatory.