Dr. Essel completed his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. After this, he obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in the area of Experimental Fluid Mechanics from the University of Manitoba. While doing his Ph.D., Dr. Essel completed a 3-year certification program in higher education teaching.

Soon after his Ph.D., he held a PDF in the Civil Engineering Department, University of Manitoba and performed research on river-ice hydraulic engineering. He won the prestigious NSERC PDF 2019 and did his tenure at the University of Windsor with research focused on experimental and numerical investigations of ground vehicle aerodynamics, wall-mounted bluff bodies and jets. Afterwards, he became a Research Associate at the Turbulence Research Laboratory at the University of Toronto and worked on bioassay analysis using machine learning techniques and turbulence control. He joined the Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering at Concordia University in August 2022.

Dr. Essel's research focuses on turbulent flows using a balanced approach of experiments, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and theoretical modelling. His applied research focuses on developing effective flow control strategies for improving energy efficiency in homes and industries, reducing flow-induced vibrations of structures and buildings, and improving the aerodynamic performance of low-Reynolds number aircraft and ground vehicles.