Mahmoud Hessabi


Mahmoud Hessabi was an Iranian nuclear physicist and senator. He was the Minister of Education for Iran in the cabinet of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh from 1951 to 1952.

Life

Hessabi was born in Tehran to the family of Abbas and Goharshad Hessabi. His family's hometown is Tafresh, Markazi province, Iran. At the age of four, his family moved to Beirut where the young Hessabi attended primary school. He was still in secondary school when World War I started prompting the closure of his school; Hessabi continued his studies at home and in 1922, he earned a degree in road engineering from the American University of Beirut. After briefly working for the Ministry of Roads, Beirut, Hessabi travelled to Paris for further education, he was awarded a degree in electrical engineering at the École Superieure d'Electricité and later a doctorate degree in 1927. In Paris, he worked Aime Cotton.
In Tehran, Hessabi was affiliated with the University of Tehran and organized the science and engineering faculties of the university, he was a teacher of Alenush Terian while she studied at the university. In June 1951, Hessabi was appointed to a three-man provincial board of the Iranian oil company, the designated successor of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. In December, 1951, he replaced Karim Sanjaby as education minister. Between 1961 and 1969, Hessabi was Iran's representative on the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

Selected works