SOP

My strong desire for geology initiated in my childhood when I enjoyably was reading books concerning stones, fossils & minerals. Watching TV documentaries regarding ocean’s life, sea floor & mountains was exciting to me indeed. The more read and watched about these materials, the more got motivated to learn about earth. Thus, I attended Shahid Beheshti University (SBU) in the field of Earth Science. During this time my interest became more focused. It was Geology and specially Stratigraphy that captured my interest. Taking sedimentology and Petrology of sedimentary rocks as a sophomore with Dr. Hosseini and stratigraphy as a junior student with Prof. Sadeghi had a great influence on me to choose Stratigraphy and Paleontology as my major for master degree. During my Bachelor degree I had several presentations in various fields of geology including Sea Floor Spreading and MORs, General Geology (Stratigraphy, Tectonics & Petrology) of Tehran Province which convinced me to spend rest of my education in in geoscience research and study.

The crucial role of K/T boundary and intricacy of Zagros basin as a folded zone including various facies and formations with economic values leaded me to pursue my Master thesis under Prof. Sadeghi’s supervision on biostratigraphy and lithostratigraphy of Gurpi Formation (Upper Cretaceous) in Ahwaz, South West of Iran. The aim of our study was to determine the place of K/T boundary and age of Gurpi Formation on the basis of foraminifera. In order to this, 10 underground sections with total thickness of 1800 meters and 700 thin sections of cuttings from exploring and developing wells were chosen and studied with microscopes. We successfully recognized 79 species of benthic and planktonic foraminifera and introduced 7 biozones in Gurpi Foramtion with the age of Late Santonian – Maastrichtian in South West of Iran.

Being fascinated by marine geology and sedimentology and its application in climatology, paleobathymetry, oceanography and paleoecology brought a great motivation for me to expand my knowledge in sequence stratigraphy, carbonate microfacies and paleoecology in addition to various topics of paleontology. I contributed in a 4 weeks online course provided by University of Bergen, instructed by Dr. Sorteberg and Dr.Nisancioglu regarding Causes of Climate Change which was another encouragement for me to follow my personal interests. During my master degree I had some presentations and class seminars including Quaternary glaciations, Oxygen isotopes as proxies in oceans paleothermometry, Paleoecology and geographic distribution of Pinaceae (Conifers), Evolution and phylogeny of Gastropods & Cephalopods and ecology of their recent species & An Introduction to Class Fishes and its classification.

I also have translated some English geology books to Persian such as “Principles of Sequence Stratigraphy” by Prof. O. Catuneanu and “Cyclostratigraphy and the Milankovitch Theory” by W. Schwarzacher. Furthermore I have been teaching subjects including engineering geology, applied geology, geomorphology, ecology and soil mechanics and English scientific literature as a lecturer at Alborz University that helped me to keep up with an academic and research atmosphere.

According to my academic records in my undergraduate and three years of my graduate education, I have made my efforts to build up a strong academic background in my favorite field I am confident to pursue my PhD and do my best to demonstrate my capabilities as a researcher and believe CUNY graduate center in geology with experienced and well-skilled faculty members involved in great global geoscience projects would be a great place that can suit my expectations. It will be a great honor for me if given a chance to ensue my graduate study in your highly esteemed university under Prof. McHugh’s supervision to apply new methodologies in multidiciplinary studies in geology including tectonics, sedimentology, marine geochemistry & marine geology. Actually, I am interested in global project of Ocean Drilling Program for which I have a strong passion and Prof. McHugh is involved in it.

Furthermore, my interest in climate changes, glaciation periods, paleoceanography and paleoecology as an applied and notable field of geology in addition to my strong background in Foraminifera and sedimentology studies aligns well with Dr. Koutavas's research area. Also, I will be able to cooperate with Dr. Pekar on Climatology which is one of the most interesting fields of geology influencing on human life. Since I have a very strong and professional background in paleontology and great experience in Cretaceous System/ Period, I have a superb motivation in working with Dr. Landman on Ammonoids and their paleoecology, phylogeny, ontogeny and systematics.