Climate Scientist Feyera Hirpa joins GEI in Sacramento

Data scientist and flood modeler specializes in community resilience.

Sacramento, CA (Jan. 29, 2024) – Feyera Hirpa, Ph.D., has joined GEI Consultants as a Climate Scientist. For 10 years he has worked with public and private institutions to develop hydrological models to quantify floods and climate risk at local, national, regional, and global levels.

“We are excited about Feyera’s experience running large, complex hydrologic and hydraulic models using cloud computing resources,” says Kwabena Asante, Ph.D., P.E., Senior Climate Specialist at GEI. “His innovative solutions will allow us to run models more efficiently, enabling us to better serve clients seeking real-time flood information or building plans for the long-range impacts of climate change in large river basins.”

Feyera has developed and deployed models for hyper-resolution flood predictions, an automatic model calibration and validation tool, and customer-oriented model validation metrics to help customers understand and trust computer models. In addition, Feyera brings expertise in using physical and artificial intelligence models to derive insights from hydroclimatic data.

“I was impressed by the team of hydrologists at GEI and their work on climate extremes,” says Feyera. “I am thrilled to join GEI and contribute to the important work at the forefront of climate change, helping mitigate the risk to communities across California.”

Feyera holds a doctorate degree and a Master of Science in Environmental Engineering from the University of Connecticut, and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Jimma University. He is a frequent conference presenter, and his work has been published in numerous leading scientific journals.

About GEI: GEI Consultants, Inc. is a consulting engineering firm that delivers professional services that improve our world’s built environment. With more than 1,440 staff and 56 offices in North America, GEI is a leader in providing multi-disciplined engineering and environmental services to a range of private and public sector clients, both domestically and abroad.

As a member of the employee-owned GISI family of companies, we foster personal relationships with our clients and support our staff in a partnership model, which is underpinned by continuous learning and sharing of knowledge. We retain proven, recognized experts and attract the best minds to deliver to our clients a refreshing blend of technical expertise, collaborative spirit, and innovation that is rare in our profession. We engineer solutions in five primary end markets: Water Resources, Energy, Buildings, Infrastructure, and Industrial. For more information on GEI, please visit www.geiconsultants.com.