Assistant Professor of Teaching
Office: CHBE 433
Email: alireza.bagherzadeh@ubc.ca
Research Summary
Engineering Pedagogy, Learning Analytics, Molecular and Mathematical Modeling, Gas Hydrates, Unconventional Energy Sources, Green Flow Assurance, Anti-freeze Proteins
Education
University of British Columbia, 2015, Ph.D.
University of British Columbia, 2010, M.A.Sc.
Sharif University of Technology, 2008, B.Sc.
Research interests + projects
Not currently accepting graduate students.
I am passionate about the practice of teaching and learning in general and my specific pedagogical interests include learning analytics and community-engaged learning. As a facilitator of students’ learning, I aim to (1) build course experiences focused more on doing rather than knowing, and (2) encourage students to take responsibility and ownership of their own learning. Instead of producing little living libraries on the subject matter, I strive to get students engaged in the process of acquiring knowledge and becoming competent independent problem solvers. Working on community-engaged projects allows students to develop these skills and at the same time feel the impact of their work on society and therefore get inspired and stay excited about their chosen field of study.
Furthermore, throughout different courses as well as the whole four-year program a large amount of data is collected from students. I am very interested in using those data, and possibly designing new surveys/tests to gather more useful data, and apply advanced data analysis techniques to extract meaningful information and actionable items to adapt my teaching strategies, assess students’ progress, and continually improve the quality of education in our program.
On the technical side, though not an active researcher at the moment, I have used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and molecular modeling techniques to understand the inhibition mechanism of anti-freeze proteins on formation of gas hydrates in the oil and gas pipelines. The ultimate goal is to use this piece of knowledge and design new synthetic inhibitors for green flow assurance practices.
Scholarly and professional activities + affiliations
APEGBC
Chemical Institute of Canada
American Chemical Society
Selected publications + presentations
S. A. Bagherzadeh, S. Alavi, J. A. Ripmeester, and P. Englezos, Formation of Methane Nano-bubbles during Hydrate Decomposition and Their Effect on Hydrate Growth, Journal of Chemical Physics 2015, 142(21): 214701-214708, {press release}
S. A. Bagherzadeh, S. Alavi, J. A. Ripmeester, and P. Englezos, Why Ice-Binding Type I Antifreeze Protein Acts as a Gas Hydrate Crystal Inhibitor, Journal of Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 2015, 17: 9984-9990
V. K. Walker, H. Zeng, H. Ohno, N. Daraboina, H. Sharifi, S. A. Bagherzadeh, S. Alavi and P. Englezos, Antifreeze Proteins as Gas Hydrate Inhibitors, Canadian Journal of Chemistry 2015, 1-11
S. A. Bagherzadeh, S. Alavi, J. A. Ripmeester, and P. Englezos, Evolution of Methane During Gas Hydrate Dissociation, Fluid Phase Equilibria 2014, 358: 114-120
S. A. Bagherzadeh, S. Alavi, J. A. Ripmeester, and P. Englezos, Mechanism of Binding of Type I Antifreeze Protein as an Inhibitor to the Hydrate Surface, in Proceedings of the Industrial Chemistry Conference, Edmonton AB, Canada, November 12-14, 2014