The 2003 electrical blackout that impacted millions of people across North America stands out to Azadeh Sabour as an example of how passionate her late father, Professor Parviz Mohammad Sabour, was about inspiring a love of science and the natural world in others.

Concerned about her father during the outage, Azadeh traveled by bus from Toronto to Guelph to check on him. She didn’t need to worry. Within moments of her arrival Parviz had set up a fire-burning BBQ in the backyard to cook dinner for them both. Afterwards, sitting in his backyard enjoying the quiet evening, Parviz realized it was finally dark enough to see the stars.

“Everything was shut down and so many people were panicking because Ontario kind of came to a halt,” she says. “He pulled out this massive telescope, and we drove out to a big open field in Guelph and we spent hours looking at the stars and the planets. Other people were out too. My father called them over to marvel at the night sky through his telescope.”

Marvelling at the wonders of the natural world was nothing new for Parviz. He was a distinguished scientist and educator whose work significantly advanced the fields of microbiology and agricultural science in Iran, in Canada and beyond. Serving as a senior researcher with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada for nearly three decades, Parviz’s research helped shape understanding of bacterial and viral dynamics in food systems, influencing practices that improved public health and food security. 

In addition to his research, Parviz was also a passionate teacher and mentor, sharing his expertise at universities in Iran, Canada and the United States. He inspired countless students and colleagues through his commitment to education and his emphasis on real-world application.

Before he passed away, Parviz established a charitable fund with a mission to support graduate students and researchers further their scientific pursuits. Sadly, he passed away before he could complete making grants. Now, the Sabour family is fulfilling their father’s wish by creating the endowed Parviz M. Sabour Graduate Awards in Temerty Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology. Each year, a graduate-level student will be named a Sabour Scholar — receiving meaningful financial support as they train in bacteriophage and food safety research. 

“Many of my father’s former students wrote to me after he passed, telling me of the impact he had on their lives,” says Azadeh. “I hope establishing these scholarships in his memory will help others start their careers and meaningfully contribute to scientific research and discovery.”

A FULL LIFE LIVED

Born in 1936 in the village of Nowbahar, now part of the city of Mashhad in northeastern Iran, Parviz lived through World War II, the Allied invasion of Iran and the devastating famine that followed. In the 1950s and 60s, international post-war development efforts, including programs led by USAID and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, helped strengthen Iran’s agricultural and educational systems — programs that would ultimately shape the course of his life.

A lover of nature, Parviz first completed a diploma at the Agricultural Teachers Training School in Varameen, which prepared educators to help advance rural development. He excelled at school and soon became a Farm Manager at an experimental vegetable and poultry farm, then worked as an Agriculture and Poultry Specialist at the Ministry of Agriculture in Rasht in northern Iran.

Afterwards, he was fortunate to travel to the United States to study zoology at Utah State University, before going on to complete his PhD in Genetics at UC Berkeley in California. 1960s Berkeley, a center of civil rights activism and fierce opposition to the Vietnam War, especially during Stop the Draft Week in October 1967, resonated profoundly with Parviz’s deeply held anti‑war beliefs.

He dedicated himself to his research and taught at universities including Ottawa, Carleton, Guelph, Purdue and Harvard. He also worked as a research scientist for the federal government at Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada in Ottawa and Guelph for nearly 30 years, published more than 190 scientific articles, gave hundreds of lectures around the world and was a prominent member of many prestigious national and international scientific societies, including as the first member of Phage Canada. 

As a father to three — Azadeh, Arash and Camron — Parviz practiced what he preached. He cooked healthy foods, including Persian stews, germinated his own seeds, grew his own fruits and vegetables at his hobby farm in Portland, Ontario, and baked his own hearty bread. He taught his children about eating from the earth, prebiotics and probiotics, healthy gut microbiome, how to make yogurt and how to take care of their plants. 

Throughout his career, Parviz also studied the origins of viruses and illnesses. Through the various research communities he was part of in Canada and the U.S., Parviz was introduced to the study of bacteriophages — viruses that can attack and kill bacteria.

Having himself faced difficult-to-treat infections, Parviz was acutely aware of the risk antimicrobial resistant bacteria play in health care, and believed bacteriophages could provide a meaningful solution.

This conviction shaped his sustained advocacy for renewed interest and investment in phage therapy across Canada’s leading research institutions, including at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine. 

Over time, Parviz emerged as a key figure in Canada’s phage therapy research community, including helping to catalyze the creation of a Professorship in Bacteriophage Therapy Research & Innovation at the University of Toronto alongside Greg German, staff physician at Unity Health Toronto’s Infectious Disease Clinic, co-founder of Phage Canada and an associate professor in Temerty Medicine’s Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology.

“Like phages, which out‑evolve bacteria, Parviz out‑evolved with the times — always thinking three moves ahead, solving challenges with kindness and a disarming approach," German told attendees at the celebration of life honouring Parviz in May 2025. “…He was a connector and catalyst, constantly linking those hungry for science with those ready for action.”

Parviz’s commitment to advancing bacteriophage research was also shaped by a deeply personal partnership. As Azadeh explains, her beloved godmother — her father’s closest friend — joined forces with Parviz to pursue meaningful philanthropic initiatives, with Parviz serving as the scientific advisor. Together, they championed several causes, and bacteriophage research ultimately became one of their central areas of focus.

Parviz passed away in March 2025, just a few weeks shy of his 89th birthday. Through her heartbreak, Azadeh continues to find his impact throughout her life and of those who knew and loved him. 

“It's one of the hardest things, losing a parent, but it's so beautiful to see the lifetime of legacy that he's left and how it's going to be continued now in his name,” she says. “I look forward to meeting the Sabour Scholars and telling them about my father.”