The Iranian Science Elites Federation was established in 2015 with the efforts of Iranian Vice Presidency for Science and Technology. The program intends to identify researchers with strong scientific background and provide special supports to their research. The objective is to strengthen international scientific collaborations with reputable scholars which provide the opportunity for researchers to use the infrastructure and facilities of global outstanding scientific centers. The program specially focuses on supporting the researches in the fields of Physical Science and Natural Science.
Sharif University of Technology is represented by its 13 faculty members at the top of this year’s list.
Prof. Hormozi-Nezhad, the Director of Research and Technology of SUT, in an interview with public relations talks about strategies that led to such an improvement: “In 2018, the federation recognized 97 Iranian scientists for their outstanding research; 8 positions were occupied by Sharif faculty members and SUT stood at the 5th place in the list of universities with the highest number of their faculties recognized as scientific elites. In recent years, the decision-makers of the university have had an inclination toward empowering interdisciplinary science research and hiring young faculty willing to break the traditional boundaries of research. To pursue the goal, the university president has given a special mission to the deans of educational and research affairs to set up new interdisciplinary courses.”
He continued: “In 2019, Sharif University of Technology reaches the top of the list with a significant leap. 13 faculty members of the university are seen in the list of 75 elites this year while there is a significant gap between SUT at the top and IPM Research Institute at the second place. The support received by scientific elites is in the form of individual scholarships, grant for laboratory services, and grant for postdoctoral researcher employment. According to this year’s result the possibility of hiring 15 postdoctoral researchers is given through the support. The improvement in research quality is believed to be guaranteed by such supports and implementing policies aimed at maximizing the number of high-quality articles.”