I joined the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology in January 2004. I came to UTIA from Iowa State University (ISU) where I spent 7 years studying interactions between soybean mosaic virus and soybean at the Department of Plant Pathology. Prior to ISU, I worked on various aspects of plant viruses in a number of research and academic institutions. 

In 1996 and 1997, I worked as a research scholar at the Department of Plant Pathology, University of Kentucky where I studied molecular biological aspects of two cucumoviruses infecting annual crops. During 1994-1996, I worked as a postdoctoral scientist at the Molecular Plant Virology and Plant Transformation Section of The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation in Ardmore, Oklahoma where I studied molecular biological aspects of a potyvirus infecting peanut. In 1991-1994 I was a research assistant scientist and subsequently a research associate scientist at the Department of Plant Virology, Plant Pests and Diseases Research Institute, Tehran, Iran. In this period, I worked on applied aspects of a geminivirus infecting tomato and a cucmovirus affecting alfalfa. During the time between 1989-1991, I was a postdoctoral research associate at the Department of Plant Pathology, Adelaide University, Australia, where I studied interactions between alfalfa mosaic virus and lucerne.