BIOGRAPHY

QUALIFICATIONS

• Several years of experience in selection and development of aquatic protected areas and aquatic reserves
• Several years of experience in leading and coordinating a team of researchers and technicians that carried out projects related to marine biology, ecology and marine environmental impact assessment
• Extensive experience in coral transplantation, c oral rescue and coral relocation projects
• Extensive experience in management and implementation of environmental impact assessment projects, with practical experience in port and oil & gas EIAs
• Eighteen years of experience as a marine biologist with expertise in selection of marine protected areas and aquatic reserves, aquatic biology and ecology, sampling design, field work and data collection
• Extensive experience in systematic and taxonomy of estuarine macro-invertebrates
• Extensive experience in research on coral reefs and associated fish communities
• Teaching experience at undergraduate and post graduate levels

 

Professional EXPERIENCE

• Experience in aquatic conservation planning with emphasis on testing the effectiveness of biodiversity surrogates, design of sampling programs for assessing aquatic biodiversity of intertidal and subtidal estuarine and marine habitats, experience in systematic and taxonomy of estuarine macro-invertebrates with practical experience on Brisbane Water estuarine macro-invertebrates in south-east Australia, and experience in using different software relevant to biodiversity conservation planning ( e.g. conservation planning software C-Plan).
• Experience in research in very harsh climatic conditions of Antarctica that included design of sampling from fresh water lakes in Antarctica, in situ water quality analyses, data analysis and interpretation.
• Experience in environmental baseline studies and EIA process in oil and gas sector, site surveys and aquatic habitat assessment, baseline data collection, data analysis and interpretation, water quality analysis, design of monitoring programs for gas pipeline in sensitive marine habitats such as coral reefs.
• Marine biologist, project manager and team leader for the annual monitoring of coral reefs in the northern Persian Gulf with the Iranian National Center for Oceanography, developing national coral reef monitoring strategies, preparing project proposals, managing project budget, leading staff and personnel (researchers, technicians and local SCUBA divers), preparing annual coral reef health status reports, coordinating ongoing activities (field sampling, etc), staff training, participation at the Global Reef Check Program, representing government in international meetings on coral reefs. Marine biologist for a provincial fisheries research center (Khoozestan, Iran), conducting fish biology research, designing and conducting field sampling trips, fish measurements, biometrics, otolith extraction, sexing, maturity stages, plankton/benthos and fish identification, and data entry, analysis and interpretation.