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Global Citizens of the Present

Today's leaders in the Persian tradition of innovation and humanity

The Global Persian Citizen Of The Present

The Persian people throughout history have an enduring legacy of global contributions rising from the cultural value placed on knowledge, innovation, progressive thinking, education, and personal achievement. This heritage is exemplified by present day global citizens through continued advancements in science, technology, medicine and the arts.

This sample of global citizens represents men and women who stand out as leaders in their field as scientists, athletes, educators, entrepreneurs, journalists, artists and humanitarians. They carry on the Persian legacy of achievement and inspire the up and coming generation of global citizens.

Abbas Ardehali

Professor of surgery and medicine in the division of cardio thoracic surgery at UCLA who has been selected a 2017 recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations.

This video features Arhdhali speaking on UCLA Performing the First Breathing Lung Transplant in the U.S.

Afsaneh Mashayekhi Beschloss

Recognized as one of American Banker’s Most Powerful Women in Banking.

Ali Javan

Iranian-American physicist and inventor, and the first to propose the concept of the gas laser in 1959 at the Bell Telephone Laboratories.

Alireza Jahanbakhsh

Iranian professional footballer who became the first Asian player to become top scorer in a major European league.

Andre Agassi

Retired professional tennis player and former world No. 1

Arash Ferdowsi

Iranian-American billionaire entrepreneur, and the co-founder of Dropbox.

Asghar Farhadi

Earned worldwide acclaim and two Oscars for domestic dramas like “A Separation”, “The Past” and “The Salesman”.

This video shows Farhadi as he describes the film making process in an interview.

Behrokh Khoshnevis

Director of the Center for Rapid Automated Fabrication Technologies (CRAFT) at USC, and has numerous inventions and over 70 US and international patents and over 170 refereed technical publications

Bobak Ferdowsi

An engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory who helped land the Curiosity rover.

Christiane Amanpour

CNN Chief International Correspondent. She has been named CBE (a British honor awarded by the Queen of England)

In this video with Amanpour, she speaks to the roles and responsibility of women and equality.

Dara Khosrowshahi

Chief executive officer of Uber who is on the list of “Prominent Iranian-Americans” published by the Embassy of the United States, Tehran.

Ehsan Yarshater

founded and edited the Encyclopedia Iranica, a magnum opus of Iranian history and culture that helped transform the modern understanding of Persian civilization.

Faryar Shirzad

Managing director at Goldman Sachs, and former White House Deputy Assistant for International Economic Affairs to President George W. Bush.

Firouz Naderi

Director for the Solar System Exploration and Directorate at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Gholam Peyman

His most widely-known invention to date is LASIk eye surgery, a revolutionary vision correction procedure which has enabled tens of millions of people to see clearly without glasses.

Golshifteh Farahani

Iranian actress and singer. She won the Best Actress Award for Boutique from the 26th Nantes Three Continents Festival (France).

This video features an interview with Farahani describing her recent work.

Hossein Eslambolchi

Iranian-American innovator, engineer and author who is one of the top 10 most prolific and exceptional inventor with over 1145+ patents List of Prolific Inventors .

Jasmin Moghbeli

The Iranian-American marine who is now one of NASA’s newest astronauts.

Lily Afshar

Won the 2000 Orville H. Gibson Award for Best Female Classical Guitarist, as well as the “Premier Guitarist” awards by the Memphis Chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc.

This video is a beautiful performance from Afshar

Mahmoud Khayami

Founder of Iran Khodro, who was appointed by The Queen as an Honorary CBE in 2011 for services to education.

Majid Samii

The world renowned Iranian scientist in neurological surgery who has garnered the 2014 Golden Neuron Award, and educated more than a thousand neurosurgeons around the world.

This article from the International Neuroscience Institute provides details of the prestigious accomplishments of Samii.

Marjan Jahangiri

First female professor of cardiac surgery in the United Kingdom and Europe.

Maryam Mirzakhani

In her short life, dying at the young age of 40 years old, Maryam Mirzakhani earned many awards including being the first and only woman to win the prestigious Fields Medal, called the Nobel Prize of math. May 12th 2019, the First International Women in Mathematics Day was established in honor of Mirzakhani’s birth date. Maryam’s legacy inspired fellow Iranian Americans Dr. Rouzbeh Yassini-Fard and Anousheh Ansari to establish graduate fellowships at the Stanford University School of Humanities to attract the next generation of world leaders in mathematics.

Masood Khatamee

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Masood Khatamee

Masood Khatamee, MD, FACOG, was awarded the 2008 Congressional Medal of Distinction. He is Executive Director of the Fertility Research Foundation (FRF) and a Professor at the NYU School of Medicine. His role at the FRF involves innovation and advocacy around the treatment and prevention of infertility. Dr. Khatamee is the co-author of Dr. Are You Listening A Couple’s Struggle To Find The Right Fertility Doctor and author of Mr. President Are You Listening. Click the image below to learn more about his work on his website for the Fertility Research Foundation.

Dr. Masood Khatamee, MD, FACOG

Dr. Masood Khatamee

Following the legacy of ancient Persian heritage highlighted by historical contributions in the field of medicine such as Abu Ali Sina (Avicenna), Dr. Masood Khatamee was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by Banou, Inc. at the traditional celebration of Nowruz on March 16, 2018.

This is just one of the innumerable awards recognizing Dr. Khatamee’s lifetime of dedication to his passionate work as a doctor in the field of women’s health.
An Iranian American doctor, Dr Khatamee is a Scholar, humanitarian, world-renowned speaker and currently serves as Executive Director of the Fertility Research Foundation and Clinical Professor at the New York University Medical Center department of obstetrics and gynecology. Dr. Khatamee is the founder and director of the Society for the Prevention of Human Infertility. His diverse recognition even includes the award for New York Businessman of the Year in 2001 & 2005. But again, this list does not begin to represent the depth or breadth of his global impact.

From the start, Khatamee’s education was concentrated in the field of women’s reproductive health. He was a graduate of Shiraz University School of Medicine in 1961. His education continued with completing internships at Namazee Hospital, Shiraz and Queens Hospital Center and as Resident and Chief Resident at the New York University Bellevue Hospital. His continuing education includes work with the World Health Organization in Tehran and Cambridge University. These are only highlights from his extensive education which alone could fill a book.

In addition to authoring 3 books; Sex Education (Chehr Publishing Co., Iran, 1970) Doctor, Are You Listening? Co-Authored with Linda Perelman Pohl (Publisher Fertility Research Foundation publishing, USA, 2008) and Mr. President, Are You Listening? (published by Fertility Research Foundation publishing, USA, 2012), Dr. Masood has contributed more than 118 articles, 37 presentations, 2 recordings and 35 television interviews. He has organized and chaired fundraising activities and 31 scientific programs worldwide. He has been honored at the white house receiving Physician of the Year, The White House, 2002-2003 and the Ronald Reagan Gold Medal 2004, 2005. Dr. Khatamee’s involvement has even extended to the US Congress where he was instrumental in passing The Infertility Prevention bill and establishing an interagency task force to develop a national strategy to combat the infertility.

The generous funding which has enabled scientists, including Dr. Khatamee, to conduct research and achieve groundbreaking advances in the fields of Obstetrics, Gynecology and reproductive medicine is comprised of grants, scholarships, awards and donations directly attributable to the reputation, recognition and irrefutable expertise of Dr. Khatamee’s life work. The results: the testing, diagnosis treatment, care, safety, success and resources available to women who desperately struggle with infertility have enabled women and families around the world to experience the inexplicable joy of holding their newborn baby.

Click Here To Read The Full Details Of Dr. Khatamee’s Career and Accomplishments

Mina Bissell

Iranian-American biologist known for her research on breast cancer. In 1996, she received the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award and medal, the highest scientific honor bestowed by the United States Department of Energy.

Nader Khalili

World-renowned Iranian-American architect, author, humanitarian, teacher, and innovator of the Geltaftan Earth-and-Fire system known as Ceramic Houses, and of the Superadobe construction system.

Nima Arkani Hamed

Nima Arkani-Hamed

Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, and one of the leading particle physics phenomenologists of his generation, concerned with the relation between theory and experiment.

Pardis Sabeti

The recipient of the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award for natural sciences blazing a new view of how to treat infectious diseases via genetics.

Parviz Moin

Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. He has been listed as an ISI Highly Cited author in engineering.

Pierre Omidyar

Founder of online auction firm, Ebay, in 1995, and currently serving on the company’s board.

Ramin Djawadi

Emmy winning composer, known for Game of Thrones (2011), Iron Man (2008) and Westworld (2016).

This video shows Djawadi performing “Game of Thrones – Light of the Seven Concert experience”

Ramin Najafi

Iranian-American chemist and founder and CEO of Emery Pharma. He was recognized by PharmaVoice 100 as one of 100 most influential leaders of 2008.

Sara Zahedi

One of the ten winners of the European Mathematical Society Prize for 2016 for research regarding the development and analysis of numerical algorithms for partial differential equations on moving domains.

Shirin Ebadi

Iranian lawyer, writer, and teacher, who received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2003 for her efforts to promote democracy and human rights.

This video features Ebadi’s Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Acceptance.

Notable Iranian Americans

Iranian-Americans of all Iranian ethnic backgrounds, have made significant contributions to the global community in such areas as Science, Arts, Business, Technology and Politics to name a few. The Iranian Americans featured in Wikipedia include those who have obtained American citizenship and their American descendants.

We invite you to add to this ever growing list.

Shohreh Aghdashloo

An Academy Award-nominated Iranian-American actress and activist.

Siavash Alamouti

Best known for the invention of the so-called Alamouti space–time block code.

Nader Engheta

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Dr. Nader Engheta

Nader Engheta is an Iranian-American scientist. He has made pioneering contributions to the field of physics and was awarded the Isaac Newton Medal by the Institute of Physics (IOP).

Dr. Nader Engheta, Global Leader in The Field Of Physics

Dr. Nader Engheta

On November 2, 2020, in recognition of global leadership in the field of physics the Institute of Physics (IOP) awarded the Isaac Newton Medal and Prize to the Iranian American scientist Nader Engheta. AS a pioneer in the field of nanoscale optics and metamaterials. The IOP reports the selection of Engheta as recipient of this award honors his “groundbreaking innovation and transformative contributions to electromagnetic complex materials and nanoscale optics, and for pioneering development of the fields of near-zero-index metamaterials, and material-inspired analogue computation and optical nanocircuitry. Engheta commented “I am very honored and humbled to be the recipient of the 2020 Isaac Newton Medal and Prize from the Institute of Physics (UK).”

Engheta earned his BSc in electrical engineering at the University of Tehran graduating in 1978. He continued his education, earning hid MS and PhD in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology. In 1987 Engheta moved to the University of Pennsylvania where he currently serves as the Nedwill Ramsey Professor of Electrical and Systems Engineering. He is also affiliated with the departments Bioengineering, materials science and engineering, and Physics and Astronomy.

An abridged version of Engheta’s Awards (full list here) Honors & Awards include:

2017 Honorary Doctoral Degree from Ukraine’s National Technical University, Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute
2016 Honorary Doctoral Degree (Dr. rer. nat. h.c.) from the University of Stuttgart, Germany
2016 Honorary Doctor of Science in Technology from Aalto University in Finland 2015 SPIE Gold Medal
2015, 2012 IEEE Achievement awards
National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellow (NSSEFF, also known as the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellow) Award from Department of Defense (DoD)
2013 Inaugural SINA (Spirit of Iranian Noted Achiever) Award in Engineering

Notable Iranians Across The Globe

Throughout history and into the present day, Iranian or Persian men and women have made significant contributions to the global community in many fields of study, from citizenship in countries across the globe and spanning hundreds of years of history.

We invite you to add to this ever growing list.