Zelalem Leyew is Professor of Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics, AAU. He is engaged in teaching and advising graduate students. He is a Humboldtian and Founding Member of the Ethiopian Association of Humboldt Fellows. As a researcher, he has published extensively on descriptive, socio- and anthropological linguistic issues. The interdisciplinary book on plant nomenclature is among his contributions frequently cited as it has brought together the theories and methodologies of linguistics and ethnobotany.