I am an Iranian early-career scientist specializing in loess deposits and semi-arid terrestrial environmental change in the Caspian Sea region. My PhD thesis was on the paleopedology of loess-paleosol sequences in northern Iran near the Caspian Sea using a range of sedimentological and geophysical methods to reconstruct environmental change in wind-blown dust deposits. Through my PhD career I obtained diverse knowledge from the fields of soil science, (paleo) pedology, clay mineralogy, soil micromorphology, sedimentology, rock magnetic, and geochemistry. Our findings; resulted in six international peer reviewed publications, eight international conference presentations and posters, and two prizes.