Reza Safarzadeh

Hi, my name is Reza. I’m a Spatial Data Scientist at Aviva Canada and a part-time researcher at the University of Calgary. I hold a Ph.D. in Geospatial Information Systems from the University of Calgary, with a background in AI-driven spatial analytics and transportation optimization.

At Aviva, I develop probabilistic wildfire ignition and spread models, property-vulnerability scoring frameworks, and dynamic-programming-based fire simulations — all feeding into catastrophe-risk pricing across wildfire, flood, and severe storm perils. On the research side, I continue working on intelligent transportation systems, route optimization, and sustainable mobility solutions. Before all this, I spent a few years in industry in Tehran, building demand forecasting models, fleet optimization systems, and location intelligence platforms.

My toolkit revolves around Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Reinforcement Learning, and Generative AI applied to geospatial problems. I’m also into digital twins for smart cities and energy-aware navigation for electric and autonomous vehicles.

Outside of work, I enjoy chess, ping pong, and a good movie — sci-fi, documentaries, you name it.