Welcome to my personal and professional journey! I'm originally from Iran and moved to the US in 2014 to pursue my PhD. Since then, I've considered the US my home, and I'm currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

After my Ph.D., I joined Stanford University School of Medicine's Department of Neurosurgery for a research position. You can learn more about my work in the research summary section. Following my time at Stanford, I joined CODA Biotherapeutics, a gene therapy startup focused on developing treatments for epilepsy. CODA raised around $70 million but needed an additional $100 million to advance its research to the clinical stage. De to unfavorable microeconomic conditions in 2022, CODA was unable to secure the necessary funding and had to close its doors. This turn of events led me to an exciting new role as a scientist at Amazon.

My background is in physics & neuroscience, hence by design I became an AI scientist. Of course I know machine learning and Deep learning and I have been doing a lot of Generative AI work since 2023. But also I know more than that, through the years I have gained expertise in nonlinear dynamics, stochastic processes, signal processing, statistics, biophysics, and network sciences. I'm passionate about using my knowledge to shape the future, serve customers, create new products, and deepen our understanding.

I believe in continuous learning hence I read and learn daily. My routine includes two dedicated hours for learning every day: one hour for reading books and the other for taking courses. One aspect of Amazon that resonates with me is its commitment to learning. "Learn and Be Curious" is one of the company's core leadership principles, established by Jeff Bezos himself. I admire Jeff's unique approach to problem-solving, which is deeply ingrained in Amazon's DNA. I look forward to growing with Amazon and contributing to its ongoing success.

Some updates 

• 2024

  • I left AWS and Joined Amazon Rufus to work on our latest Generative AI product 

  • I gave a colloquium talk at the Department of Physics of Ohio University

  • I got a new appointment as Adjuct professor of Physics at Ohio University 

  • I was the editor for the Brain Development section of the 3-volume Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescent Health, which was the last project that I worked on at Stanford University. This collaborative work received the 2024 PROSE Award for "significant contributions" in Clinical Medicine by the Association of American Publishers. 

• I got invited to the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, it was a nice experience to be there and I made some friends in Oslo 

• A Chinese media interviewed me and wrote about this piece in Science magazine: 为了读博，我差点卖掉一个肾

• March 2023: My Sci rep paper became among the top 100 papers in neuroscience "Dynamics of phase oscillator networks with synaptic weight and structural plasticity" 

• March 2023: Published a piece in Science Magazine with the printed title "Priced out of Science", and online title "I almost sold a kidney to pursue my PhD" In this piece reflecting on my own difficulties paying for graduate school application fees, and identifying this as an ongoing issue excluding students from less wealthy nations. I got many replies where people told me their versions of going to extremes to get an education. 

• Feb 2023: The Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescent Health, went online 

• Oct 2022: I joined Amazon as a research scientist in the AWS network capacity team. 

• Oct 2022: Finished editing the Brain development section of the Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescent Health, the full book becomes available in early 2023 

• Sept 2022: A new paper was published in Scientific Reports. "Dynamics of phase oscillator networks with synaptic weight and structural plasticity"

• June 2022: A new paper was published in Scientific Reports. This is my first paper as a senior author  "Depolarization of echo chambers by random dynamical nudge"

• April 2022: A new paper was published in the journal "Frontiers in Network Physiology" Long-lasting desynchronization of plastic neuronal networks by double-random coordinated reset stimulation