Accomplished Iranian Americans
Lotfi Zadeh is most
famous as the father of “fuzzy logic” following the publication of his seminal
1965 paper on fuzzy sets. Currently a professor of computer science at
University of California at Berkley, he is internationally known in the areas
of computer science, engineering and mathematics. Prof. Zadeh is a
Fellow of the IEEE and a recipient of the 1973 IEEE Education Medal, the 1992
IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal, and an IEEE Centennial Medal. He is a member of
the National Academy of Engineering and a Foreign Member of the
A
short biography by Betty Blair
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Anousheh Ansari recently became the first Iranian woman in space and the first female
“space tourist” by going to the orbit aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Before
that, she and her husband helped make aviation history. The two successful flights
of the privately funded “SpaceShipOne” into
orbit (100 km or 62 miles up), which made the possibility of space tourism into
a potential reality, were in large part motivated by the $10 million dollar “Ansari X Prize.” Entrepreneurs Anousheh
and husband Amir Ansari were the top contributors to
this important cause, which made history in terms of the aforementioned flight.
The Time magazine recently named SpaceShipOne the
“Invention of the Year” for reviving dreams of space flight for ordinary
people.
Anousheh Ansari is a trustee of the
X Prize Foundation and a successful entrepreneur in the world of high tech
industry. She is the Co-Founder of Prodea, Inc. and
was previously General Manager and VP of the IntelligentIP
division of Sonus Networks, formed in January 2001
through Sonus' acquisition of Telecom Technologies,
Inc. (TTI). Ms. Ansari founded TTI, a supplier of softswitch-based solutions for network and service
providers offering end-to-end solutions for next generation, carrier-grade
multi-service networks, in 1993, and as its CEO, turned it into a force in the
telecommunication industry. She was listed in the prestigious Forbes 40 under
40 in 2001, and recognized by Working Woman magazine as the winner of the 2000
National Entrepreneurial Excellence award. Ms. Ansari
holds a Master of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from
Ansari
X Prize: (as described in its President’s message)
Anousheh
Ansari: (Full Bio-sketch)
Ansari X Prize
(homepage)
The SpaceShipOne
(Project’s homepage)
Time magazine
(Invention of the Year)
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Pierre Omidyar,
an entrepreneur and philanthropist was born in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Omidyar
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/omi0bio-1
http://www.tufts.edu/microfinancefund/
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Ali “Al” Yeganeh, was the inspiration
in an episode of the TV sitcom “Seinfeld” behind the “Soup Nazi” character, an
unforgiving soup seller in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soup_Kitchen_International
http://www.originalsoupman.com/
http://www.iranian.com/Mar96/Features/Ashpazbashi.html
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,133182,00.html
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Maryam Mirzakhani is a young mathematician who currently lives in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryam_Mirzakhani
http://www.imo-official.org/participant_r.aspx?id=926
http://www.claymath.org/fas/research_fellows/Mirzakhani/
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2005-09-13-brilliant-minds_x.htm
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2006-07/popscis-fourth-annual-brilliant-10?page=7
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Saba
Valadkhan, a young scientist at the Case Western Reserve university, solves the
“the riddle of the spliceosome” that had baffled
scientists for decades. Her discovery holds promise for understanding and
treatment of Alzheimer’s, cancer and other diseases with a genetic component.
She has been named as the winner of 2004 Young Scientist Award, a $25,000 prize
sponsored by GE Healthcare and Science magazine. Please check the following
link for more information about her:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saba_Valadkhan
http://www.payvand.com/news/05/aug/1088.html
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