Professor Nasrin Moazami: from the Canadian Forests to Gheshm Island

Moazami was born in 1945, and in 1976 received her Ph.D. from the faculty of medicine of Laval University in Canada. In 1987 she established the best-equipped biotechnology lab in Iran, which continues to be a center of scientific research. In 1995 she founded the Persian Gulf Biotechnology Research Center at the Persian Gulf island of Qeshm, the first Iranian center for applied marine biotechnology.
For 15 years she has worked with five engineering teams on a project in the southern province of Bushehr to turn microalgae into a new biofuel. Prior to that she was active in another project to eradicate malaria-carrying mosquitos through biological agents instead of chemical pesticides which, among other shortcomings, pollute water resources and introduce toxins into the human body.
To conduct her research, Moazami worked within a very traditional community on Qeshm island. “I had no trouble obtaining authorization from the local government,” she wrote in a report for UNESCO. “But I also needed the support of the community to ensure that no potential mosquito breeding ground was neglected, including in the home. I approached the religious leader Molana Khatib with a request to present the malaria trial to the religious leaders from the villages the next time they gathered in Qeshm mosque. Coming from a woman, such a request would normally have been turned down, but Molana Khatib was so impressed with my arguments that he acquiesced. ‘You are a scientist, not a woman’, he reasoned.”
It was this experience which led her to her next project. “The special bond I formed with the Qeshm islanders during the malaria eradication trials led me to found the Persian Gulf Biotechnology Research Center on the island in 1997. The center develops plant propagation using the tissue culture of bananas, orchids and date palms to increase agricultural productivity. It also explores the qualities of coral for health applications. Coral is strikingly similar to bone, with a 98 percent degree of compatibility. This makes coral a potential substitute for bone transplants in patients, as there is no risk of rejection by the human body.”
She was not oblivious to the human context of her scientific research and became active in improving the life of the community in which she was conducting her work. “Shortly after the center opened its doors, I proposed setting up a training school for female health-care workers on the premises,” she writes. “The project was designed to kill two birds with one stone: both health care on the island and employment opportunities for young unmarried women were sorely lacking on Qeshm at the time. It was not uncommon for girls to be married off at the tender age of 12 or 13 for lack of other prospects. Girls were entitled to only three years of primary schooling, a restriction that did not apply to boys.
“The local authorities were supportive of the scheme. Within a couple of years, thanks to the collaboration of the Ministry of Health and financial support from the UNDP [United Nations Development Program], 25 girls were enroled in the health-care training school and first-aid clinics were sprouting in the villages.
“The government went on to found secondary schools for both girls and boys and three universities, which today offer courses in physics, chemistry, biology, environment and aquaculture. One of them also offers an MBA, in collaboration with Carlton University in Canada. The island is hoping to develop tourism. At the Persian Gulf Biotechnology Research Center, students can enroll in Master's degrees in both environment and tourism, proposed in collaboration with the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands. Half of all tertiary students on Qeshm in 2004 to 2005 were women.”
Moazami is a professor of biology at Tehran University, has published more than 70 research papers in international scientific journals and has completed 19 research projects.
Some of Dr.Moazami’s achievements and credits are:
1 – 70 articles published in reputable international journals
2 – 3 international patents and 19 research projects
3 – Awarded the Chevalier de I'Ordre des Palmes Académiques for her outstanding research in 1995.
4 – First place in research in the International Kharazmi Festival and first place for the best scientist in Iran and receiving the Islamic Republic of Iran research award in 1997.
5 – Top director in the 8th Top Director’s Congress in 2008.
6 – Top Iranian microbiologist in biotechnology and biofuel production from microalgae and one of the forerunners on the subject in Iran.
7 – Selected as member of the guidance council of the international basic science programme of UNESCO
8 – Received top award for research in the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1996
9 – Director and permanent member of the New Technologies Research Centre
10 – First honorary member of the International Science and Technology Centre
11 – Honorary member of Shahid Beheshti University science faculty.

Sanaz Moazezi
M.S. in international law