Graduate student, PhD
Mehdi is an international student working towards his PhD. His warmth and positive attitude are palpable. A former elite athlete and international karate champion. He says that as an athlete “I was always curious about how my body responded to different types of exercise training.” This curiosity led him to pursue studies in the field of physical education and sport sciences.
He states,“During my undergraduate years I participated in a number of research projects and quickly realized that this was the field for me. I understood that research could generate invaluable knowledge that could potentially aid both clinical patients and healthy populations alike. And so, I decided to pursue a graduate degree to enrich my knowledge and develop skills that could help me grow as a productive translational researcher.” Translational research builds on basic scientific research to create new therapies, medical procedures, or diagnostics to enhance human health and well-being.
His research is focused on how the cardiovascular system behaves in response to various interventions/therapies in health and disease. He is currently investigating how high-thoracic spinal cord injury impairs cardiovascular function with the aim of developing therapies that could effectively improve or restore cardiovascular function after injury.
After completing a PhD, Mehdi will be preparing himself to complete a post-doc in the field of cardiovascular physiology in order to follow the academic path towards a tenured professorship, so that he may ultimately act as a translational researcher. He says that “I aim to conduct research that results in the creation of novel therapies, medical procedures, and diagnostics to help those suffering from cardiovascular complications.”