Trained in geochemistry of meteorites and Earth rocks at UCLA.

Teaching various undergrad to graduate level courses in Earth Sciences since 1993. Enjoy teaching oceanography over the past six years.

Current research interests primarily include age determination of rocks from the mountains and deserts in areas within the Arabia-Eurasia collision zone for understanding the geological evolution of this segment of the Alpine-Himalayan Mountain chains. The region uniquely preserves records of three vanished Tethys Oceans covering about 600 million years of the geological time. The two youngest of the Tethys Oceans formed at the time that the Pangea supercontinent was resulted from convergence and assembly of all landmasses between 300 and 200 million years ago. Birth and demise of each ocean has left tremendous evidence in the rock record now found in Iran and neighboring countries in the Middle East and Caucasus. Research has been collaborative with colleagues and students from many countries. Results have been published in scientific journals. Two of the broader impact publications include: Permian-Triassic boundary mass extinction at about 250 million years ago, known as the mother of mass extinctions and the Jurassic subduction initiation in the Tethys Ocean.

If you are interested to know more about my work, search me in Google Scholar.