Intellectual Movements in Iran - Modern Scientific Movement

Modern Scientific Movement

See main article Iranian science and Iranian contemporary medicine

The history of modern science in Iran dates back to the year 1851 and the establishment of Darolfonoon – which was founded as a result of the efforts of Mirza Taghi Khan Amir Kabir, aiming at training and teaching Iranian experts on many fields of sciences, and it was the future minded Abbas Mirza who first dispatched students to Europe to obtain a western education.

By the establishment of Tehran University, science in Iran entered a new phase. Mahmoud Hessaby, Ali Asghar Hekmat, Moslem Bahadori and many others played roles in initiating and forming these movements. The outcome of the movement has been the emergence of researchers who have been trained and received doctorate degrees in the country and have found international reputations. Modernization of Iranian medicine did not occur through the straightforward replacement of traditional Persian medicine by modern European medicine. Rather, the integration of modern medicine went through a long process that included both the reinterpretation of traditional theories by traditional physicians and the assimilation of modern theories through the prism of traditional medicine.

One of the main Iranian scientific movements in late 20th century was in the field of chemistry and pharmaceutical chemistry. The main leaders of this movement were Abbas Shafiee, Bijan Farzami, Mohammad-Nabi Sarbolouki, Issa Yavari and Ahmad Reza Dehpour. The movement resulted in hundreds of research papers in peer reviewed international journals.

Other notable figures who promoted world-class research in Iran during 20th century are: Reza Mansouri and Yousof Sobouti (Physics), Abolhassan Farhoudi (Immunology), Mohammad Reza Zarrindast (Pharmacology), Fereydoun Davatchi (Rheumatology), Taher Movassaghian (Chemistry), Ardeshir Ghavamzadeh (Hematology), Ali Radmehr (Radiology), Hossein Najmabadi (Medical genetics), Hormoz Shams (Ophthalmology), Moslem Bahadori (Pathology), Hormoz Dabirashrafi (Obstetrics and Gynecology), Hossein Esteky (Neuroscience), G.R. Baradaran Khosroshahi (Mathematics), Caro Lucas (Electrical Engg., AI), Jawad Salehi (Electrical Engg.) and Ali Kaveh (Civil Engg.).

Iran's university population has swelled from 100,000 in 1979 to 2 million in 2006. Indeed, in Iran some 70% of science and engineering students are women.

Iran is now a world leader in some areas like string theory. When a reporter for Nature asked Reza Mansouri: "Why do I see so many string theory papers coming out of Iran?" He explained how Iranian scientists worked together under revolution, sanctions and war to bring Iran to such a position: "I remember exactly the beginning of the revolution, some old colleagues just sat together and spoke about what we could do for Iran. Is it understood that we have to look for excellence, in some areas that we may be strong and that we may get strong at that so that will be the field of physics. So we began with that. It happens that the most active field physicists in our country were working on the string theory at that time. So they tried to be of a school, so to speak, and we did know that that was the only way which was somehow independent of all these political fluctuations regarding war, regarding cultural revolution, all that, and we really tried hard to build up schools. So we have it now, string schools, so to say somehow."

In 2007 United Nations awarded Hossein Malek-Afzali with the prestigious UN Population Award. Malek Afzali has helped design strategies to improve health procedures, particularly adolescent health, reproductive health and family planning. In the field of reproductive health, he has engaged policymakers and religious leaders in the planning and implementation of reproductive health programmes in Iran.