Dr. Mahdi Arzanlou obtained his M.Sc degree in Plant pathology from University of Tehran, in 2000. Since then, he moved to Netherlands based on a grant from Ministry of Science, Research and Technology of Iran and he obtained his Ph.D from Wageningen University and CBS-Fungal Biodiversity Centre in 2008 on Phylogeny, detection and mating behaviour of Mycosphaerella species occurring on banana. He got permanent position as academic staff member of Plant protections department at University of Tabriz, Iran, in 2008. He is an Associate Professor in Molecular mycology and Plant pathology. Currently, he is head of Molecular mycology lab at University of Tabriz.

Molecular Phylogeny and diagnostics of plant pathogenic fungi with particular emphasis on structure and evolution of mating type genes; Biodiversity of plant pathogenic fungi in natural ecosystems.