Iranian scientists are a significant part of global scientific community and have been continuously contributing to modern science and technology. Scientists with an Iranian background have made significant contributions to the international scientific community. In 1960, Ali Javaninvented first gas laser. In 1973, the fuzzy set theory was developed by Lotfi Zadeh. Iranian cardiologist Tofy Mussivand invented the first artificial heart and afterwards developed it further. HbA1c was discovered by Samuel Rahbar and introduced to the medical community. The Vafa-Witten theorem was proposed by Cumrun Vafa, an Iranian string theorist, and his co-worker Edward Witten. The Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) equation has been named after Mehran Kardar, notable Iranian physicist.
The below image shows a selected list of emerging top scientists who are already known in their respective fields globally: Nima Arkani-Hamed, Alireza Mashaghi, Ramin Golestanian, Mona Jarrahi, Pardis Sabeti, Ali Hajiamiri, Zoubin Ghahramani, Roya Beheshti, Ali Khademhosseini, Vahid Shahrezaei, Amir Samii, Saba Valadkhan, Pedram Hamrah, Hadi Shafiee, Farinaz Koushanfar, Fereydoon Derakhshani, Negar Kiavash, Amin Shokrollahi, and Javad Lavaei. For an extended list of contemporary Iranian scientists, please visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_contemporary_Iranian_scientists,_scholars,_and_engineers
Iran’s scientists uncrushed by decades of sanctions
US President Donald Trump’s unilateral withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear Agreement (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action; JCPOA) in May attracted international condemnation. As vice-dean for research in the Faculty of Medicine at Tehran University of Medical Sciences, I stand behind Iran’s scientists, who have resolved to work even harder to maintain the country’s scientific progress (see also Nature 557, 287–288; 2018).
After the imposed war in 1980–88 and decades of Western sanctions, Iran has made remarkable advances in research, ranking 17th in the world in 2012. The JCPOA did not have much impact on scientific productivity, in part because many US sanctions remained in place. These continued to affect the purchase of books, journals, lab equipment and materials; the payment of publication charges; membership of scientific bodies; and travel to conferences and meetings. Furthermore, the US treasury department clamped down on publication in US journals of papers from Iranian government scientists In the face of Trump’s withdrawal from the JCPOA, I hope that the international scientific community will support Iran’s efforts to contribute further to international science.
Nature 559, 331 (2018)
doi: 10.1038/d41586-018-05747-0
Iranian-Americans at the Forefront of Success
Roxana Maddahi, Contributor
A Wealth Advisor at Steel Peak Wealth Management that explains investing and finance in plain English.
09/07/2017 04:48 pm ET Updated Sep 09, 2017
After a nine-week hunt for a CEO, Uber announced the appointment of Iranian-American, Dara Khosrowshahi, a former executive at Expedia where he had the distinction of being the highest paid CEO in the US. Honoring a long-held family tradition of valuing education above all else, he earned a B.A. in Electrical Engineering from Brown University.
Khosrawshahi is among a long list of Iranian CEOs and successful Iranian-Americans whose remarkable achievements are recognized internationally. His own family is an incubator of sorts for high achievers, as many of Khosrowshahi’s family members are Silicon Valley executives and investors.
Khosrawshahi is certainly not the exception when it comes to Iranian-Americans achieving success. A report by the Iranian Studies Group at MIT reveals that per capita average income for Iranian-Americans is 50% higher than that of the rest of the nation. Iranian-Americans living in homes valued at over $1 Million exceeds the national average by ten times.
The list of Iranians in high-powered tech positions is extensive, some examples of which include Shervin Pishevar, co-founder of Sherpa Capital, Pierre Omidyar, founder of Ebay, and Sean Rad & Justin Mateen, co-founders of Tinder.
Iranian-Americans have also attained top positions in financial markets. One example is Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani, a rare woman in the male-dominated field of finance, serving as the CIO of Private Wealth Management at Goldman Sachs.
The list of Iranian-American physicians, scientists and academics is extensive, with one example being the late Maryam Mirzhakhani, who received the Fields Medal in 2014, the highest honor in Mathematics.
Most Iranian immigrants did not have access to capital when they first arrived in the U.S. in the late 70s and early 80s, so what is it that makes this relatively small group of immigrants so financially successful?
The answer is: Education. Education has always been a pillar of Iranian culture, both in Iran and within the Iranian immigrant population. Statistically, Iranians are the most highly educated immigrant group in the United States. They tend to excel in math and the sciences, fields in which American students typically struggle.
Some 57% of Iranian Americans hold a bachelors degree, compared to 24% of the US population, and the percentage of Iranians who hold graduate degrees is three times the national average. One can easily see how a vast playing field of opportunities becomes available to those who are equipped with the knowledge and expertise to compete in various industries.
I had the pleasure of catching up with David Nazarian, an Iranian-born businessman and founder of Nimes Capital. Like many fellow Iranian-Americans, Nazarian believes education is the leading factor in achieving success within any culture or community.
“We have been taught as immigrants that the only asset that no one can take away from you is education. From early on, Iranian families have ingrained this value in their kids.”
Nazarian’s commitment to helping provide all students access to an excellent education, regardless of background and financial standing, inspired a charitable contribution to The CSUN school of Business and Economics, which is now named The David Nazarian College of Business and Economics in his honor.
“I want to make sure that all underprivileged communities have equal opportunities for quality education so that they have the right access to pursue their professional aspirations”. Says Nazarian.
Like Nazarian, most Iranians place tremendous value on education, helping others achieve career success. Consequently, a significant number of Iranians have contributed to the education systems here in the US. A few other examples include the Paul Merage School of Business at UC Irvine, which is named in Paul Merage’s honor after a substantial donation.
Another example is Hadi and Ali Partovi, who co-founded code.org, a non-profit organization that provides computer science education to 20% of US students.
At a time when immigrant populations are being marginalized in the US, the Iranian-American community is a notable example of how immigrant populations with access to education can truly create a better life for themselves and the society they in which they live.
Link: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/iranian-americans-at-the-forefront-of-success_us_59b1af7fe4b0c50640cd65dc
Iran is top of the world in science growth
By Andy Coghlan
Which country’s scientific output rose 18-fold between 1996 and 2008, from 736 published papers to 13,238? The answer – Iran – might surprise many people, especially in the western nations used to leading science. Iran has the fastest rate of increase in scientific publication in the world.
And if political relations between Iran and the US are strained, it seems that the two countries’ scientists are getting on fine: the number of collaborative papers between them rose almost fivefold from 388 to 1831 over the same period.
A rapid rise in Middle Eastern, Chinese, Indian and Brazilian science stands out from a report published this week by the UK’s Royal Society, comparing global publication and citation rates between 1993 and 2003 with those between 2004 and 2008. Like Iran, other, smaller players are also stepping up their research activity. Turkey, for example, quadrupled its output between 1996 and 2008, after increasing sixfold its funding for R&D. Similar trends emerged in Tunisia, Singapore and Qatar.
On the broader scientific stage, the established leaders in the US, Europe and Japan still dominate, but their ascendency is being eroded by rapidly industrialising countries. So while the proportion of papers with US authors has slipped from 26 to 21 per cent, China has risen from sixth to second place with 10.2 per cent of the authored papers, up from 4.4 per cent in 1996. India and Brazil are rising rapidly too.
“The leading nations are not getting weaker,” says Chris Llewellyn Smith, chair of the panel that produced the study. “Rather, I would say we’re seeing a rise in other nations into the big league,” he says.
Marking the growth of science as a global enterprise to solve global problems, Llewellyn Smith says that collaborative papers have risen from a quarter to more than a third of all papers published. “To solve a global problem, you need data from all round the world, and this helps to unify the scientific voice geographically,” he says. “So I think we can all benefit from this, to solve global problems.”
Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20291-iran-is-top-of-the-world-in-science-growth/
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