He earned a bachelor of science in civil engineering from Addis Ababa University. He went on to earn a masters of technology in transportation systems engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, and a PhD in transportation and materials engineering from Kansas State University. His work includes several large-scale projects including the field verification of KDOT’s Superpave Mixture Properties to be used as inputs in the AASHTO Mechanistic Design Guide for Pavement Structure; a verification of mechanistic-empirical design models for flexible pavements through APT testing; and the implementation of the rolling wheel deflectometer for pavement structural data, among others.