Professor Atalay Ayele Wondem is the director of the Institute of Geophysics, Space Science and Astronomy (IGSSA) at Addis Ababa University (AAU) in Ethiopia. He is a seismologist who studies the seismovolcanic nature of continental rifting, primarily in East Africa. He has raised awareness of geohazards throughout Africa and has been a key figure in facilitating international science efforts in Ethiopia and surrounding regions. Atalay has been an exemplary mentor to young African scientists, many of whom have gone on to research in Ethiopia and other countries. Atalay grew up in a rural part of Ethiopia. As the eldest child in a large family, he was a trail blazer from an early age, the first in his family to attend university. He studied physics at AAU before being awarded a Ph.D. from Uppsala University. He returned to AAU in 1998, helping to establish IGSSA. AAU has a long history in geophysics, tracing its routes back to the founding of a geomagnetic observatory in the International Geophysical Year (1957). Atalay’s research has led to a better understanding of seismic hazards in Ethiopia and East Africa. He established a modern seismic network in Ethiopia and plays a key role in the development of a national risk and hazard framework. He chaired the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Seismological Working Group, an organization that helps train young African geophysicists and facilitates data exchange across the region. He founded and was the first president of the African Seismology Commission, a subcommission of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics. In 2005, a dyke intrusion led to the opening of a 60-kilometer segment of the Dabbahu Rift in Afar, triggering a decade of rift activity. Atalay was the first to observe anomalous seismic activity in the region, quickly mobilizing authorities and verifying the surface expression of rifting. This led to a wide variety of geoscientific studies involving a diverse breadth of international scientists. Without a doubt, the resulting scientific breakthroughs would not have happened without Atalay’s leadership. More generally, Atalay and co-workers at AAU have helped facilitate an incredible number of collaborative experiments with international scientists working in Ethiopia. In many, Atalay has not only facilitated the experiments; he has provided intellectual leadership and hypothesis testing from the start. Atalay is richly deserving of the AGU International Award for contributions to the study of African geohazards and continental rifting, unselfish collaborative spirit and leadership in African geosciences. 

— Michael Kendall University of Oxford Oxford, United Kingdom