Amir Anvarian qualified with a BSc in Food Science and Technology (Agricultural Engineering) in 2001 from Tabriz University. After a year of working in food industry as a production assistant manager, he moved to the UK, where he went on to gain an MSc in Food Safety, Hygiene and Management from the University of Birmingham in 2003, followed by another MSc in Food Science (Food Biotechnology) from the University of Leeds (2009). From 2004 to 2008, he worked both as a research assistant for the University of Birmingham on two FSA-funded projects and as a food safety consultant, working for major national and international consultancy companies including NSF International.
In 2009, he went on to study for a BBSRC-funded PhD at the University of Birmingham, under supervision of Dr Tim Overton. The project involved using flow cytometric techniques in order to investigate the factors that could affect the viability of E. coli in acidic food environment, namely orange juice. This was followed by a postdoctoral research fellowship (2014-2016) in Teagasc (Irish Food Research Centre, Fermoy, Co Cork), under supervision of Dr Kieran Jordan, where he applied his flow cytometry skills in order to investigate the environmental microbiome in powdered infant formula production environments. For this work, he was awarded the Developing Scientist Best Research Paper Award by the International Committee on Food Microbiology and Hygiene, ICFMH (FoodMicro 2016, Dublin).
In 2016, he returned to the UK to take up a lectureship position at the University of Lincoln’s National Centre for Food Manufacturing (NCFM), where he established the first distance-learning degree apprenticeship BSc course in Food Science and Technology in the UK. After more than three years, Amir returned to the University of Birmingham where he has been working as a Teaching Fellow in Food Safety, leading postgraduate and undergraduate modules and helping with delivering lectures on a wide range of food safety and microbiology-related topics. He is also involved in teaching statistics to food science students.
Amir is married with one son. He is an avid reader and collector of magazine periodicals with an interest in geography, history, infographics and travelling.