Ali is currently a Research Associate on the DOWN2EARTH project based at the University of Bristol where he is analysing spatio-temporal trends in lake area dynamics across the Horn of Africa over the past four decades. Previously he was a Research Assistant on Katerina’s Leverhulme Trust Fellowship where he collected and analysed global data on river flow.

Ali has recently been awarded a prestigious NERC Flood-CDT studentship to pursue a PhD on dryland floods at the University of Bristol under the supervision of Katerina and co-supervised by Dr Joe Daron, Dr Paolo Paron at FAO-SWALIM and Dr Guy Schumman of RSS-Hydro. He is one of only four international students selected for this prestigious scholarship across multiple UK universities and is due to commence his PhD around April 2025.

Before joining Bristol, Ali earned a Distinction in his MSc Water in a Changing World from Cardiff University, where he was also a top student among five recipients of a prestigious full-tuition scholarship. He holds a full-scholarship Bachelors of Environmental Engineering from NUST, Pakistan’s top university and he has three years of experience as a water consultant for esteemed clients including the World Bank, WWF, and WaterAid.

Ali’s research interests include dryland hydro-climatology, flood and drought management, remote sensing, GIS, and nature-based solutions.