Esmaeil Zarei joined as Associate Professor of Safety Science the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) in Oct 2022. Before that, he was with the Center for Risk, Integrity and Safety Engineering (C-RISE) at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada (2020-23). He worked for over two years as Faculty Instructor, 2012-14, and three and half years as Assistant Professor, 2017-20, in the Department of Occupational Health and Safety Engineering in Iran. Prior to joining the faculty, he had also worked as Safety and Risk Engineer for three years at the Iranian Petroleum Health Organization. During these periods, he held different positions like Founder and Director of Safety, Occupational Health Labs and Student Research Center, and Executive Manager in the Industry Innovations & Partnerships Office. He also taught over 1000 hours of continuous training in Safety and Risk Engineering subjects in various industries like oil and gas, steel manufacturing, and mining.

Esmaeil is deeply passionate about creating impact through innovative science and engineering, focusing on Safety, Risk, Resilience Engineering, and Human Factors/Reliability. He conducts primary research in these areas, particularly in emerging sectors like the Hydrogen Economy and critical industries such as Aviation and Process Industries. At the Robertson Safety Institute (RSI) at ERAU, he generates fundamental knowledge applied to diverse sociotechnical systems. With experience spanning four universities in three countries since 2012, Esmaeil collaborates actively with industry partners and leading academic institutions worldwide. He has (co)supervised over 20 Master's and Ph.D. Theses and serves on Editorial Boards  for reputable journals at Elsevier. His contributions rank him among the top 2% of scientists by Stanford University for three consecutive years since 2021.