Parviz shahriari biography

Shahriari, a secular leftist, was also active in politics. Involved with Marxist groups in the early s, in he became a member of the Tudeh Masses Party, the pro-Moscow communist party. From to , Shahriari was a member of the editorial board of the newspaper Ghiam-e Ma Our Revolt. On February 6, , there was an assassination attempt on Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi by Islamic fundamentalists, which provoked a large wave of arrests.

Shahriari was arrested for the first time in April and imprisoned for three months. While in jail, he learned Russian, which he later used to translate some great Soviet books on mathematics into Persian. Indeed, while still in jail, he produced his first translated book, History of Arithmetics, and soon after published a collection of mathematics books for the first three years of high school.

Parviz shahriari biography

He became editor-in-chief of the magazine Vohooman, whose last issue was published on August 19, , the day a CIA-sponsored coup overthrew the government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. The Islamic Republic imprisoned Shahriari as well — from April 28, , to July 22, — presumably because of his connection with the Tudeh Party. Shahriari received an award from the Ministry of Education in for his service to the nation.

Many leading scientists and scholars participated in the celebration of his 75th birthday in The following year, the University of Kerman awarded him an honorary doctoral degree in mathematics. The administration of former President Mohammad Khatami founded a scientific foundation that was named in his honor, and in he was recognized as a chehreh-e mandegar-e elmi — roughly, a scientific figure who will always be remembered.

Shahriari married Mozhdeh Behizadeh in They had five children, Shahriar — a distinguished professor of mathematics at Pomona College in southern California — Marjan, Mozhdeh, Shervin, and Toka. Marjan lost her life in a car accident in when she was only eight years old. With his passing away, Iran lost a good son who played a deeply important role in the education of generations of Iranian youth.

Undoubtedly, Shahriari was a shahriar king of mathematics in Iran, as well as a good human being who cared about people and pursued social justice. His translations and writings brought modern mathematical concepts and methodologies to Iranian students and educators. By translating key texts from French and Russian into Persian, Shahriari bridged the gap between Iran and the global scientific community.

Over his lifetime, Shahriari authored and translated more than books on a wide array of subjects, including mathematics, history, philosophy, and literature. He worked as a porter in the railway and studied in Tehran university at the same time until he graduated in The fifties were a politicised decade which saw many students become active in politics and Shahriari's humble beginnings and the hardships he experienced during his childhood gravitated him towards the Tudeh Party, Iran's Soviet backed Communist Party.

He was arrested several times and learned Russian in prison. Shahriari's greatness however was due to his enormous contribution in making mathematics and physics interesting and accessible to thousands of Iran's youngsters, including myself. His numerous translations of mathematics books made the boring school mathematics fun and challenging and those who were lucky enough to be his pupils speak of his classrooms as sheer delight.

Parviz Shahriari was also a founding member of some of Iran's best schools like Kharazmi and Marjan schools. Apart from his contributions in mathematics and sciences, Shahriari also published some cultural magazines too. Shahriari was also jailed for 18 months by the Islamic Republic and the regime deprived him of his pension.