Dr. Samadi' Personal Information

I grew up in the Caspian Sea Region and in a well educated family. I had a happy childhood and spent my time in a beautiful natural environment.My relationship to nature is an important part of who I am...

We moved from Great Britain to US and I live in South Carolina with my family.I have a wonderful son, Arvin. We love to travel and have fun. Needless to say, my family is my priority. But there is also time for other sorts of fun. South Carolina is a great place for family, but also for many other pursuits. I enjoy playing music, and my son and I play violin together. Music is meant to give us happiness, explore our emotions, feel deeper, and be entertaining. I also love to watch sports, particularly soccer and volleyball.

Please do not throw a steak on the grill for me, because I am mostly vegetarian (...this is the reason why I go by "Vidya"). I don't eat land animals, mammals, farmed animals, or bottom-feeders. I do eat dairy, and I eat some fish (wild salmon is too good to give up!) There is no one single reason for my choice; rather, it stems from my concern for the animal welfare, our environment, and my health (no, it doesn't bother me if you eat meat: you can put whatever you want in your own body:)).

I have done volunteer works for some nonprofit organizations. One particular interest is the effect of hurricane-driven floods on society. I can sometimes be found working on my own software and running models when I should be doing real simulation. This is the ways to connect technology to calibrate water resources systems that I really love. Writing code is fun! it is even more fun when it runs correctly and seamlessly... This is what motivates my research.

Previous Ventures

After graduating with my Engineering MS degree from the University of Tehran, I worked for over a year with Engineering firms in Tehran, Iran--Indo-European people with black, brown and light brown hair:-). There I supported several catchment modeling systems and was involved in a new project for a reservoir construction. After a year and a bit, I went back to College to get my Ph.D. degree in Engineering.

On completion of my Ph.D. I got an opportunity to do postdoc with Catherine Wilson at Hydro-environmental Research Centre (HRC)-Department of Civil Engineering, Cardiff University, United Kingdom. I worked on various funded projects at Catherine' lab as well as I trained how to write research and industry proposals. During that time, I learned advanced computing and programing and most importantly how to speak Welsh (sort of ish). I moved to the US in 2012 and worked as a postdoc at the UofSC Carolinas Integrated Sciences & Assessments with Greg Carbone & Dan Tufford (hydrologist; retired) and later on as a Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (UofSC) where I contributed to several funded projects (NOAA, NSF, SRNL, DOT, etc.) along with teaching and training graduate and undergraduate students in Engineering.

Present Day

I joined Clemson University in January 2020 and am a tenure track professor within the Department of Agricultural Sciences. Different web pages on this website will tell you about my lab, what I teach, my research areas, where I get my funding from and the students that work with me to make it all happen.