Biographical Sketch of Sadredin C. Moosavi
Sadredin (Dean) Moosavi grew up in the inner city of Rochester, New
York where he attended public schools, ultimately graduating from Wilson
Magnet High School. Years of outings with his grandparents, part-time
naturalists and volunteers with the Nature Conservancy, impressed a love of the
outdoors and clear understanding of the importance of scientific study of the
natural world on the young Moosavi. As a Congress-Bundestag scholarshipsponsored exchange student to Germany in high school in the mid 1980’s
Moosavi truly found his passion for environmental science and research while
witnessing the devastation wrought by acid rain on the forests of Central
Europe. Returning home Moosavi chose to study science in service of society
for solving environmental problems.
Financial constraints forced Moosavi to begin his college career at
Finger Lakes Community College in Canandaigua, NY. While lacking the
infrastructure of a research university, the small school’s specialization in
conservation used in preparing the state’s conservation officers provided an
excellent opportunity to gain hands-on appreciation for the important role that
small scale science done on a limited budget with an engaged local population
can play. The knowledge that all such problems play out locally, largely with
populations not specifically trained in science is one of the great lessons of
Moosavi’s professional life. Moosavi completed his undergraduate degree in environmental chemistry at SUNY
Environmental Science & Forestry in Syracuse, NY.
Upon graduation Moosavi began the study of biogeochemistry as a Ph.D. student with Patrick Crill at the
University of New Hampshire where his research, supported by a NASA Graduate Research Fellowship, focused on
boreal and arctic wetland greenhouse gas cycling. Extensive field missions to Alaska and Canada seeking to
determine the controls on methane and carbon dioxide production and emission brought the wonder of discovery
combined with understanding of the rigorous demands of a science career. Work with students as a trip leader and,
later, alumni advisor to the New Hampshire Outing Club when in New Hampshire, however, was more critical in
gaining an appreciation for the importance of teaching and public outreach to societal action on the discoveries and
recommendations resulting from scientific research. This interest in pedagogy led Moosavi to be the first geoscience
student at UNH to complete the Cognate in College Teaching from the UNH Teaching Excellence Program.
Upon graduation Dr. Moosavi chose to forego traditional post doc offers from universities in the U.S. and
Germany to answer the nation’s call for STEM teachers by serving a very enlightening 2 years as a sabbatical
replacement science teacher at Oyster River High School in Durham, NH. Moosavi’s return to academia came in
answer to the call for assistance in the preparation of pre-service teachers at Minnesota State University-Mankato
where he created several geology courses to satisfy new licensure requirements demanded of Minnesota
teachers…but benefiting students in the many states with teacher shortages to which these new teachers move upon
graduation. While in Mankato, Moosavi worked on curriculum development projects with NASA through the
Astroventure program, profiled best practice courses for teacher development projects with the Science and
Education Research Center at Carleton, and supported in-service teacher professional development through the
Minnesota Mineral Education Workshop. Building upon his own background in learning about the world, Moosavi
focused his research and teaching on building student understanding of geology using a place-based case study
approach in which students select a Special Place to analyze as a personal classroom for geoscience learning. In
addition, collateral damage from educational battles over the place of intelligent design, evolution and the geologic
time scale in science classes inspired Moosavi’s research on the general public’s understanding of the National
Science Education Standards and development of best practices for teachers dealing with this contentious issue.
After a brief stint in on-line education through Walden University’s M.S. in Ed. Science Program, Moosavi
moved to Tulane University’s Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences (EENS) to assist in the rebuilding
and recovery of New Orleans by redesigning the physical geology lecture and lab courses in line with modern best
practices. While continuing his previous research, Moosavi has also become heavily involved with Tulane’s Center
For Public Service, creating the department’s first course in response to the new Tulane public service graduation
requirement for which all post Katrina Tulane students complete 2 courses with a minimum 20 hour service learning
component each. Tulane physical geology students are engaged in a long term study of the beach profile and sand
movement on Grand Isle, a barrier island south of New Orleans critical to marsh preservation and storm surge
protection for this section of the Louisiana coast and the greater New Orleans metropolitan area. Collaboration with
Grand Isle State Park and the New Orleans Geological Society allows students to gain a genuine scientific data
collection and analysis experience combined with the education and outreach component needed to involve the
December 8, 2008 by Sadredin Moosavi
Biographical Sketch of Sadredin C. Moosavi
larger community. The students, mostly non-majors, leave the course with the skill and understanding to be citizen
scientists aware of their role and obligation to serve society as informed and engaged community members. The
immediate importance of this work has been enhanced by the 2008 hurricane season which saw the construction and
subsequent obliteration of an Army Corp. of Engineers beach nourishment project in the Grand Isle study area by
the storm surges from hurricanes Gustav and Ike. The student generated data provide a rare opportunity to examine
how a beach nourishment project responds to a large storm surge with pre and post intervention information.
December 8, 2008 by Sadredin Moosavi