Elham Izadi received her Ph.D. from the University of Utah in 1991 with a follow-up degree from the University of Paris XI in 1993. She was a Benjamin Pierce Assistant Professor at Harvard (1991-95) and was then recruited by the University of Georgia in Athens (UGA) where she has been a faculty member since 1995.

Izadi is an expert in algebraic geometry, including Hodge theory, moduli spaces, abelian varieties and curves, vector bundles and classical geometry.