About
Hello and welcome to my website! I am currently an ESO and IAU Gruber Fellow in Garching, Germany. I am originally from a small town in Iran and moved to St Andrews, UK for my undergraduate studies in astrophysics. Then I did my MPhil in astrophysics at Cambridge, UK with Prof. Cathie Clarke before moving to Leiden Observatory, NL for my PhD with Prof. Ewine van Dishoeck.
Research
I am interested in star and planet formation. Particularly, the chemistry in the embedded phase of stars (Class 0/I).
Observations
My observational studies focus on using ALMA and JWST to observe the molecules in the gas and ice around protostars. One of my recent studies focused on observations of complex cyanides in ices with JWST-NIRSpec. We tentatively detected methyl cyanide, ethyl cyanide, and nitrous oxide for the first time in interstellar ices around three protostars (see publications).
Modelling
I have worked on several modelling projects (see publications). Here I show a graph comparing the integrated line fluxes of methanol calculated by RADMC-3D with observations of low-mass protostars in Perseus. In this work I studied an envelope-only and an envelope-plus-disk model. We concluded that disks and optically thick dust are necessary to explain the lack of methanol emission at millimetre wavelengths in some protostars. For more information feel free to check out the paper.
Teaching & service
Summer of 2021, Leiden Observatory
2020-2022, Leiden Observatory
2020-2022, Leiden Observatory
2022, Leiden Observatory
2019-2022