Gunay Erpul holds a Bachelor degree in Agricultural Engineering from Ankara University, Turkey (1986). In 1987 he joined the Soil Science Department of Ankara University as a Teaching and Research Assistant. He was awarded a scholarship to attend the Complementary Studies in Eremology, Ghent University , Belgium, where he received a 2nd Master degree in Desertification in 1996. Later, he continued at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana for his Ph.D. and fulfilled Ph.D. research under the collaboration between United States Department of Agriculture National Soil Erosion Research Laboratory and International Center for Eremology (ICE) of Ghent University – Belgium , in 2001.

He served as an associate member in the field of Soil Physics of International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy from 2007 to 2012. He has been member of Multidisciplinary Expert Panel (MEP), Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) since 2013, highly involved in the deliverables of thematic, regional and global assessments of Land Degradation and Restoration. He is currently faculty member of Ankara University, Turkey since 2003, teaching and researching on the areas of soil and water conservation, land evaluation and land use planning, desertification (land degradation and restoration), erosional processes and modelling. One of his achievements includes the specific research and scientific papers on the wind-driven rain erosion processes and modelling.