Hamid Javadi

In January of 2007, the newly established network group of Iranian-American Physicists (IrAP) invited APS members of Iranian heritage to gather under a non-religious, non-political umbrella with well-organized bylaws to govern its activities. Over the years, the IrAP network group has strived to be a unifying voice among its members and has maintained contacts with similar professional organizations in the US (such as the Iranian Chemists Association of the American Chemical Society, and Association of Professors and Scholars of Iranian Heritage). Even-though Iranian-Americans are not a legally-recognized minority, IrAP network group represents the professional needs and aspirations of a small group (almost 500 registered members) of APS. We encourage our members to join the APS Forum on International Physics. We try to maintain regular contacts with the APS/FIP Executive Committee. In recent years, we have participated in each of the APS/FIP receptions that have taken place during the APS March meetings.

In 2012, we established a Graduate Student Research Award in honor of the renowned Iranian scientist “Biruni” who lived in 11th century and was well versed in Physics as well as other fields (for more information about Biruni please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biruni or the BBC documentary: Science and Islam 2/3). We are now in the process of reviewing candidates for the Biruni 2013 graduate student research award. This award has encouraged us to commit more of our energy and resources to academic excellence of US physics students of Iranian decent. This in turn prompted us to make some transitional changes to our bylaws (for review please visit: www.irapnetwork.org). We are no longer being governed by a Board of Directors but instead by a Council of volunteers with equal governing power. We hope that in the future, this change will remove all barriers for participation of interested and qualified individuals in IrAP network group. We hope to do more by concentrating on the academic excellence of the next generation of US scientists who can build a better future for all with promises of peace, justice, and tolerance among the two nations.

If you are interested to support Biruni graduate student research award, please contact IrAP award coordinator:  Farbod Shafiei, Ph.D, Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin
2511 Speedway RLM 5.208, Austin TX 78712. Email: farbod@physics.utexas.edu

We welcome your questions and comments. For general comments and to become a member of IrAP network group, please contact: Hamid Javadi, Ph. D. IrAP network group council member. Email:  hamidhjavadi@sbcglobal.net   Our aspiration is to transform our network group to an Association of Iranian-American Physicists with stronger ties to APS and APS/FIP.

Hamid Javadi is President of the Iranian-American Physicists (IrAP) Network

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Disclaimer - The articles and opinion pieces found in this issue of the APS Forum on International Physics Newsletter are not peer refereed and represent solely the views of the authors and not necessarily the views of the APS.