He obtained a B.S. in Civil Engineering (1999) and an M.S. in Structural Engineering (2001) from the Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran. Subsequently, he received an M.S. in Mathematics (2006) and a Ph.D. in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (2010) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His doctoral dissertation was mainly focused on Spacetime Discontinuous Galerkin Finite Element methodologies and novel interfacial damage and probabilistic fracture models. Prior to joining the University of Tennessee in 2012, he served as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois.