Staff profile

I graduated in environmental science from the University of Tehran. My MSc research focused on examining the phylogenetic and phylogeographic patterns within cinclids of the Palaearctic (Cinclus cinclus and C. pallasii), where I uncovered significant phylogeographic structure and distinct evolutionary lineages across the dipper's Eurasian range. My PhD research project at Durham is part of the NERC-funded IAPETUS2 Doctoral Training Partnership. Working in collaboration with Newcastle University and Natural England, the project seeks to understand the potential impacts of changes in climate and land use on rare breeding bird species in Britain. To explore the drivers of changes and investigate the extent to which climate change might be driving population trends of rare breeding birds, I will explore, for the first time, data collated by the UK's Rare Breeding Birds Panel (RBBP) over the past 50 years to better understand the ecology of these key species and, ultimately, to direct future conservation actions in the UK and beyond.