Amare works at the intersection of human behaviour, technology, and ecological systems.
His current work focuses on emerging pests and pathogens, including human infectious diseases, animal diseases, and plant pathogens. Through the ERC-funded INFLUX project, he uses statistical analysis to examine how outbreaks interact with climatic, economic, and conflict-related shocks, and how these interactions may amplify risks across connected systems.
He also studies emotions and environmental decision-making, with a focus on how people perceive and respond to climate and environmental risks. He designs digital research tools for behavioural experiments, including a React application embedded in PsychoJS to create more interactive, social-media-like experimental experiences. He is increasingly interested in agent-based modelling as a way to connect individual behaviour with collective outcomes at larger scales. He is also interested in how responsible AI use and AI literacy can help preserve human agency.
Amare grew up in a farming family in Tigray, where livelihoods depended directly on land, forests, and rainfall. This background continues to shape his interest in environmental change, human behaviour, and livelihoods. He completed his PhD at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) in 2018.
Selected Publications
Pay, talk or ‘whip’to conserve forests: Framed field experiments in Zambia.
Ngoma, H., A.T Hailu, S. Kabwe, and A. Angelsen. 2020. Pay, talk or ‘whip’to conserve forests: Framed field experiments in Zambia. World Development 128:104846
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