| Sharif University of Technology (SUT) | |
|---|---|
| دانشگاه صنعتی شریف Dāneshgāh-e San'ati-ye Sharif |
|
Sharif University of Technology coat of arms |
|
| Established | 1966[1] |
| Type | Public |
| Endowment | US$25 million |
| Chancellor | Reza Roosta Azad[2] |
| Vice-Chancellor | Seyed-Ghassem Miremadi |
| Admin. staff | 395 |
| Students | 10,502[3] |
| Undergraduates | 5,776 |
| Postgraduates | 4,726 |
| Location | Tehran, Iran |
| Newspaper | Sharif Daily Scientia Iranica |
| Colours | Light Blue |
| Athletics | 19 sports IUSF |
| Affiliations | FUIW IAU ICTP TWAS |
| Website | sharif.edu www.sharif.ac.ir www.sharif.ir |
Sharif University of Technology (SUT) (Persian: دانشگاه صنعتی شریف Dāneshgāh-e San'ati-ye Sharif) is a university of higher education in technology, engineering and physical sciences in Tehran. Sharif University of Technology is one of the most prestigious universities in the country, and is considered Iran's MIT. The university is located in the Tarasht neighborhood of Tehran within walking distance of Azadi Square, and has an international campus in Kish, a resort island in the Persian Gulf. The university is named after Majid Sharif Vaghefi, a former student who was killed in 1975.[4] It was formerly named the Aryamehr University of Technology (Persian: دانشگاه صنعتی آریامهر Dāneshgāh-e San'ati-ye Āryāmehr) and for a short period after the 1979 revolution, the university was called Tehran University of Technology.
Sharif University of Technology (SUT) provides both undergraduate and graduate programs in 14 main departments. The student body consists of about 6000[5] undergraduate students and 3700[5] graduate students from all the 30 provinces of Iran. Funding for Sharif University is provided by the government and through private investments. Undergraduate admission to Sharif is limited to the top 1 percent of students who pass the national entrance examination administered yearly by the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology.[6]
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The university was first founded in 1965 with the name Aryamehr Technical University by Dr. Mohammad Ali Mojtahedi (محمدعلي مجتهدی). At that time, there were 54 faculty members and a total of 412 students who were selected by national examination. Also only four departments were established: Electrical, Metallurgical, Mechanical, and Chemical Engineering.[7] In 1972, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi appointed Sayyed Hosein Nasr as president of the university with the goal of modeling the school based on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but with roots in Iranian culture.[8][9] In 1974 a new campus of the university was established in Isfahan. But later that campus became an independent university, named Isfahan University of Technology (IUT). The emblem of IUT still closely resembles SUT's emblem .
Currently the university has grown to an elite school with over 9000 students, 700 of whom are studying for a doctorate, and over 500 faculty members in 15 main departments.[6]
The main campus of University of Sharif's is in Tehran, Iran. It is located close to the Azadi Tower, which is the symbol of Tehran and one of the main transportation hubs. Sharif University also has an international campus in Kish Island in Persian Gulf.[10]
Sharif University was established in 1966 as an "Engineering" university. The first departments of the university were Electrical, Metallurgical, Mechanical, and Chemical Engineering.[7] Currently, Sharif University has 14 science and engineering departments in Materials Science and Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Petroleum Engineering, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Mathematical Science, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, Aerospace engineering, Management and Economics. The only non-engineering department is the Philosophy of Science department, which offers exclusively PhD and M.Sc. graduate degrees.
| 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engineering & IT[11] | 264th | 183rd | 145th | 165th | 244th |
Sharif University has been noted beyond the borders of Iran. The chair of Electrical Engineering Department of Stanford University has announced that: "Without a doubt the finest university in the world preparing undergraduate Electrical engineers is Sharif University of Technology in Tehran".[12] Professor Burton Richter's opinion about Sharif's students during his speech in Sharif university was: "The students here are very impressive, I expect to hear a lot more from you all in the future."[13][14][15] Sharif university school of engineering is acknowledged as one of world best schools of engineering.[16] In 2008 in response to an invitation from the president of Sharif University of Technology, presidents of six U.S. research universities visited Iran. The group includes Jared Cohon of Carnegie Mellon University, J. Bernard Machen of the University of Florida; C. Daniel Mote, Jr. of the University of Maryland, College Park; David Skorton of Cornell University; Larry Vanderhoef of the University of California, Davis and David Leebron from Rice University.[17] This recognition is highly valuable, as there is no political connection between Iran and United States.
In order to be able to expand its relations with the industry, Sharif University has supported establishment of Research Centers. These are usually started with a spin off funding provided by or through university, but will start to accept research and development projects from industry in their first months of establishment. Most of the employees of these centers are Sharif University students, while in some cases recent alumni or students of other universities have been recruited as well.
Following is a list of research centers affiliated with Sharif University.[18]
Sharif University is a public university and its funding is provided by the government of Iran. For the top ranks of the national university entrance exam, education is free in all public universities. The people with ranks below the normal capacity of the universities will be required to pay part or all of the tuition.
Industrial companies have supported Sharif University, and provided research funding for the desired programs and projects. For instance, the Petroleum Engineering department was supported by Iran Oil industries .
Sharif University was appointed as a Center of Excellence (fa:قطب علمی) by Iran's Ministry of Science and Technology in the fields of "Advanced Materials","Aerospace Systems","Biological Process Engineering","Communication","Design, Robotics, and Automation","Energy Conversion","Earthquake Engineering","Mathematics","Physics","Power System Management and Control" and "Telecommunications". This appointment is based on national standing based on research achievements and invested funding in the mentioned topics.
Prior to the Islamic Revolution many political organizations including but not limited to Fadaian Khalg and People's Mujahedin of Iran active members and supporters were among students of the Sharif University. In the 14 years since its inception many active members and supporters were arrested and killed by SAVAK among those Abdolmajid Pirzadeh Jahromi, Majid Ahmadzadeh (Fedaian Khlaq) can be named.
Through the student political movement after the 2nd of Khordad Movement, Sharif students were also actively involved. The major groups with political intentions at Sharif, during 1997–2003, were student Basij and the Association of Muslim students, briefly called Anjoman (Association). Most other smaller groups were allies of either or Basij or Anjoman. Basij was a serious opposer of Mohammad Khatami, the president of the time. Whereas, Anjoman was a loyal follower. There has been several clashes between member students of the two groups. Free speech tribunes, occasionally end in harsh quarrel-like debates. However, the major clash between Anjoman and Basij occurred while the student movement was in silence in most other universities. In 2006, a serious controversy resulting in physical tensions, occurred after Basij attempted to bury bodies of unknown Martyrs of the Iran–Iraq War at the universities' Mosque court.[19]
Many of Sharif alumni are spread all around the world since lots of them continue their graduate studies in Europe or North America and also some of them immigrated to these countries, therefore it is not easy to establish local organization to be contacted by the alumni. Sharif University of Technology Association (SUTA) is a global organization that was formed in 2000 to facilitate communication and collaboration among the graduates, faculty and staff of the Sharif University.
This non-profit organization is registered in the state of California, USA and has many chapters and affiliates around the world. Its mission is to enhance professional, academic, and social contacts among its membership, and to strengthen the ties between the association members living outside of Iran and the University.[20]
| Chancellor | Tenure | Alma mater | Speciality |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prof. Mohammad Ali Mojtahedi | 1965–1967 | Université Lille Nord de France | Mechanical Engineering |
| Prof. Fazlollah Reza | 1967 | Columbia University | Network and Information Theory |
| Dr. Mohammad Reza Amin | 1968–1972 | UC Berkeley | Physics |
| Prof. Hossein Nasr | 1972–1975 | MIT | Physics |
| Dr. Mehdi Zarghamee | 1975–1977 | MIT | Structural Engineering |
| Dr. Alireza Mehran | 1977–1978 | University of Geneva | Biophysics |
| Dr. Hossein Ali Anvari | 1978–1979 | INSA Toulouse | Electrical Engineering |
| Prof. Ali Mohammad Ranjbar | 1979–1980 | Imperial College London | Electrical Engineering |
| Prof. Abbas Anvari | 1980–1982 | Chalmers University of Technology | Physics |
| Dr. Ali Akbar Salehi | 1982–1985 | MIT | Nuclear Engineering |
| Prof. Abbas Anvari | 1985–1989 | Chalmers University of Technology | Physics |
| Dr. Ali Akbar Salehi | 1989–1993 | MIT | Nuclear Engineering |
| Dr. Mohammad Etemadi | 1993–1995 | University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) | Electronics |
| Prof. Sayed Khatiboleslam Sadrnezhaad | 1995–1997 | MIT | Metallurgical Engineering |
| Prof. Saeed Sohrabpour | 1997–2010 | UC Berkeley | Mechanical Engineering |
| Dr. Reza Roosta Azad | 2010–current | University of Waterloo | Chemical Engineering |
The exact number of Alumni of Sharif University is not available at this point. Many of the alumni are connected to the SUTA association, and enjoy annual gatherings around the world. To count a few well known alumni, one can categorize the alumni as follows.
The university is known for its large number of alumni who pursue graduate studies and join the academia. While the number of such alumni is large, one can name Behzad Razavi, Professor of electronics at UCLA, Mohammad Shahidehpour, Director of electrical engineering department and Associate VP for Research at Illinois Institute of Technology, Maryam Mirzakhani, Professor of Mathematics in Stanford University as some of the more famous ones.
A number of SUT alumni have been active in industry. Akbar Torkan, director of Petro-Pars Co. and previous Transportations Minister, Mehdi Setareh, professor of Architecture at Virginia Tech, Manoochehr Manteghi, managing director of Iran Khodro, Ahmad Ghalebaani, former managing director of SAIPA, and Mehdi Mir Moezzi, managing director of Iran national petroleum company can be named as some of the more famous alumni.
Many of the SUT alumni have entered in politics, including Mohammad Ali Najafi former minister of higher education and member of Tehran City Council, Es'hagh Jahangiri, former Minister of Industries and Mines, Abbas Mohtaj, former commander of Iranian Navy, Mohammad Atrianfar, former head of Tehran City Council, Morteza Alviri, former Mayor of Tehran, Ali Larijani, speaker of Majlis and former presidential candidate and former head of IRIB and Mohsen Sazegara, former government official, political activist.
Also, some of the opposition groups outside Iran have members who are SUT alumni. These members include Foad Mostafa Soltani, former leader of Komala political party of Iranian Kurdistan and Maryam Rajavi, president of People's Mujahedin of Iran Organization.
Multiple alumni of SUT also continued their carrier as professional athletes. Having been affiliated with SUT's athletic teams, Ali Daei, former member and later head coach of Iranian national football team and Iraj Mozzafari, former captain of Iranian national Volleyball team can be named. Adel Ferdosipour, prominent football commentator and Elshan Moradi Chess Grandmaster are also SUT alumni.
Other publicly known figures with a Sharif related background include Peyman Yazdanian, music composer and Mohammad-Javad Larijani, director of Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics.
Imprisoned human rights blogger Kouhyar Goudarzi was an aerospace student at Sharif until pressure from state security forces allegedly caused his dismissal.[21]