Tibebu Getachew Ayalew was born in a rural area in Gojjam, Ethiopia. He earned his bachelor’s degree in physics (minor in Mathematics), from Jimma University, Ethiopia in July 2006 and his master’s degree in space physics from Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia in July 2013. He received his PhD in space physics from the University of Oulu, Finland, in November 2019. His PhD thesis title was "Spatial-temporal structure and distribution of the solar photospheric magnetic field". After completing his PhD, he remained at the University of Oulu as a postdoctoral researcher for one year. In November 2020 he moved to Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, where he worked as a postdoctoral researcher for one year. While at Princeton, he worked on the analysis of solar energetic particles (SEPs) using observations of Integrated Science Investigations of the Sun (IS☉IS) aboard the NASA Parker Solar Probe (PSP) mission and helped to manage the IS☉IS Team science work. He also helped Princeton’s Space Physics group to develop the Space Physics laboratory.
In November 2021 he moved to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland and since then he has been working as a postdoctoral researcher. At NASA-GSFC, he has been working on the multi-spacecraft analysis of both remote and in situ observations of the quiet-Sun magnetic structure and its solar energetic particle (SEP) environment using data from Parker Solar Probe and other missions. The goal of this work is to understand the low-energy solar energetic particle environment of the quiet-Sun and to test the physical mechanisms that produce, accelerate, and transport SEPs.