Shimelis Assefa is Associate Professor in the department of Research Methods and Information Science. He teaches in the Library & Information Science program in the area of information science and technology. His research interests focus on the intersection of information science and education. He is primarily interested in the diffusion of knowledge from research to practice, learning technologies, and evaluation of information systems.

Dr. Shimelis received his BS in Library & Information Science (major) and computer science (minor), a master of science in Information Science, both from Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia).  He received his doctorate from the University of North Texas, Denton, in Information Science.

In addition to his formal education, Dr. Assefa is a recipient of numerous international fellowships and scholarships. He studied at the University of Natal, Durban, South Africa, covering medical informatics and network administration, with financial support from New England Medical Center and Tufts University. He also studied backbone internetworking at San Jose State University (under Internet Society fellowship), and Library automation at the University of East Anglia, with financial support from the British Council.