I am Mehdi.  I was born and raised in a city in the south of Iran, called Shiraz. I got my bachelor's in Electrical Engineering from Shiraz University. My passion for economics and financial markets lead me to study finance and I got my master's degree in Financial Management from the University of Tehran. After graduation I worked in financial industry for about two years. I enjoyed learning and doing research at my job so much that I decided to pursue a PhD in finance. I found LSU's Department of Finance to be a perfect fit for my educational goals, so I joined LSU! Geaux Tigers!

My main hobbies are travelling, music, soccer, movies, cooking and baking. I am crazy about soccer. I sometimes play either indoor or outdoor soccer, but I watch almost all games of my favorite team, Real Madrid. I am a real (Real) fan! I have several jerseys as well as the Madridista membership card. I haven’t been able to watch their games in the stadium yet, but as soon as I visit Spain, I will go to Madrid to watch their game. I didn’t know anything about football before I came to the US, but now I am a fan of LSU in college football and Saints in NFL. I have been in Tiger Stadium a handful of times but I watch most of their games on TV. 

I am also enthusiastic about movies and TV shows. My favorite directors are Quentin Tarantino, Krzysztof Kieślowski, and Asghar Farhadi. I have always been into video games and I always thought I was good at them and I would stay as good, but recently I painfully discovered that I lose quite often to younger players when I play online. I wonder if it is my age or the fact that I don’t play as regularly anymore!