Dr. Faisal Bin Ashraf is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Water Resource Science and Engineering Group, which is part of the Environmental Sciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). His research interests generally focus on water resources management, particularly in assessing environmental flows, the water-energy-ecosystem nexus, and sustainable water resource management. At ORNL, his research centers on building a comprehensive data-to-decision framework for river basins to support hydropower stakeholders. He is also involved in projects that assess the energy potential at non-powered dams and quantify greenhouse gas emissions from hydropower reservoirs in the United States.
Before joining ORNL, Faisal Bin Ashraf completed his Master’s and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Oulu, Finland. His previous work involved investigating sustainable water-energy nexus methodologies for fossil-free transitions, quantifying the impacts of hydropower on freshwater ecosystems, coupling water-energy systems, and modeling the cascading effects of compound flooding events.
He has held various positions, including Research Fellow, Senior Environmental Consultant, and Postdoctoral Researcher, in Finland and Sweden. Additionally, he served as a soil conservation expert at the Integrated Watershed Management Program in India, where he is originally from. Faisal has six years of research experience in water resources engineering, all as part of international collaborations.