Aster serves as the Vice President of the International Union for Agroforestry (IUAF). Aster holds a PhD in Tropical Forest Ecology from Göttingen University in Germany, a master’s degree in Agroforestry/social forestry from the University of Wageningen, The Netherlands, and has a first degree and a diploma in forestry from Alemaya University of Agriculture and Wondo Genet College of Forestry in Ethiopia, respectively. She has over twenty years of experience in research, tertiary level teaching and consulting. Her research is at the intersection of forestry, agroforestry, and their management practices, with a principal focus on impacts of climate change on trees, forests, and their ecosystem services.

Aster is a Senior Scientist at World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Nairobi Kenya, and she also tutors, as visiting professor at the West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) program, Dresden University and Centre for International Postgraduate Studies of Environmental Management (CIPSEM) international students in Germany. Aster has led and participated in various research projects across Africa and Asia, raise funding and established an Agroforestry demonstration plot at Wondo Genet College of Forestry, Ethiopia in 2000, Set up a dendrochronology lab in Ethiopia in 2009, and state of the art dendrochronology lab in Nairobi, in 2013. Aster has an outstanding list of publications, currently more than 80 published journal articles (including in Nature) and conference papers and over 40 paper and poster presentations in various international conferences. She has trained more than 15 PhD students (e.g., from Ethiopia, Ghana, China, Mali, Benin, Germany, Niger, Rwanda, Nigeria, Togo, Cote d’Ivoire, Bangladesh, and Burkina Faso).

Her quality research and contributions has been internationally acknowledged and won multiple awards. Notably, Elected Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS in 2021); Fellow of the  International Academy of Wood Sciences (IAWS, in 2021); Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS, 2017); in 2016 conferred Eleonore Trefftz Visiting Professorship, by the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Technical University Dresden, Germany; 2014- African Climate Award for Excellence in Research in climate adaptation and mitigation, and Winner of  Special Award for Ground Breaking Science (2009) –African wide Young Professionals and Women in Science Competitions organized by (CTA/ATPS/AGRA/FARA/RUFORUM/NEPAD) April 2009 African union, Addis Ababa Ethiopia.

Currently, she is serving Chair of the Environment Committee AAS; Deputy coordinator of IUFRO Task Force on Global Tree Mortality Patterns and Trends; Mountain Research Institute Science Leadership Council (since 2016); PAGES (Past Global Changes) Scientific leadership and member of many societies.