100,000 of Iran’s intellectual elite serve the international community outside of Iran’s borders.

Professor Fazlollah Reza is internationally renowned as a mathematician, philosopher, Eastern historian and literary scholar who has dedicated his long and prosperous life to the service of science and humanity. Professor Reza’s recent visit to Tehran to address the 5th Iran Petrochemical Forum (17 – 18 May 2003) provided a unique opportunity for Iran International to get to know one of Iran’s most distinguished scientific figures. Professor Reza elaborated on his thoughts with regards to the future of Iran and the path he believes Iran should take on the rocky road to national progress and prosperity.

Professor Reza is famous in scientific circles for his contributions to the Theory of Electrical Circuits and Systems, Information Theory and related Applied Mathematics and has authored numerous scientific papers and three books (Modern Network Theory, Information Theory & Linear Spaces in Engineering) published in the U.S. and subsequently translated into several languages.

Professor Reza was chancellor of two prominent academic institutions –Sharif University of Technology and Tehran University– where he instituted many academic reforms in line with new western university standards. Between 1969 and 1978, Reza assumed diplomatic duties on behalf of his native land serving as Iran’s Ambassador to Paris at the United Nations (UNESCO 1969-1974). He was subsequently designated Ambassador of Iran to Canada, a position he held from 1974 until the end of 1978.

It is not as if a Newton will be found in Shiraz, the world has changed.

In addition to his scientific career, Professor Reza is a devoted scholar of Persian literature and philosophy. His numerous essays and five volumes on Persian classical literature have earned him a place of distinction in Persian literary circles. Professor Reza is an alumnus of the Tehran University, Columbia University (MS 1946), and Polytechnic University of New York (PhD 1950).

Professor Reza has been awarded several medals and honorary degrees from renowned institutions in North America, Europe and Iran. This includes honorary degrees from the polytechnic University of New York, McGill University of Canada, IQBAL’s centennial medal from the Government of Pakistan and the Atomic Energy Center of Iran. Professor Reza is currently the head of Iranian Academic Association in North America.

The presence of 100,000 Iranian specialists that serve the world community is a fact that is related to globalization and the world becoming a smaller place. Nowadays people travel to places that are rich in science and technology. There may be as many as 10,000 Iranian doctors abroad and I wanted to say that we could view this with a positive outlook. It would have been better (for Iran) if all these people were here, but the world situation has become such that economic and scientific developments attracts them. It is not something that can be prevented so the next best thing is to have the Iranians who go abroad and serve the world community to at least have their services somehow registered in the name of Iran.

I mentioned in my speech that underground resources of oil and gas represent our greatest financial wealth and against that is our greatest intellectual resource, Iranian minds that are serving the people of the world. By that I did not mean that the individual incomes of these people surpassed Iran's oil revenue, I merely wanted to point to Iranians with high ideals that enable them to surpass political issues to assist their own people. For instance an Iranian doctor practicing medicine overseas cannot relocate to Shiraz in order to help out but in his or her dealings with and travels to Iran, may be able to financially assist the acquirement of medicines or medical equipment. So I meant that the spiritual value of their efforts could be equal to that of oil, not the total of their individual incomes.

Another point I must insist on is that we must not forget the teachers in remote villages or small towns that continue to educate our children despite small salaries. Had it not been for their selfless efforts there would be no Iranian engineers, doctors, lecturers and scientists in England, Europe or America; we must appreciate them and pay them more attention.

The Western discovery in the 1600s that the earth was not the center of the world, rather it formed a minute part of the universe led to a momentous movement in the scientific world. Men like Galileo, Copernicus and Newton initially started the movement. The philosophical meaning of this initiative was that we should begin to regard mathematical theories as a natural entity, not some abstract philosophy written by those lost in daydreams. Our greatest scientists were characters like Khayyam, Mullasadra and Sheikh Bahaie, but they were unfortunately our very last. They were ignorant of discoveries made by Galileo that were published in Europe. Following this, not only did it take us 200-300 years to rediscover the Western scientific world, we were wholly immune to the industrialization that took place from the 18th century onwards in Europe. Therefore we fell behind the rest of the world by 300 years and only started up again 100 years ago. We have achieved an incredible amount in 100 years, represented by the hundreds of thousands of qualified Iranians from which 100,000 are overseas; it is not as if we have only been resting on our laurels.

I said in my speech that all borders have become brittle, everybody is aware of events worldwide therefore there is a great eagerness in our society to be in touch with the rest of the world. There is also a yearning for greater speed in our youth for discovering the outside world. But the truth is that we must first create an infrastructure. A large number of people (i.e. the gentlemen employed in the petrochemical industry) have gone to great lengths to lay the foundation for Iran’s industrialization. We can gather round this foundation as the mother industry and start to build. We have gained an awareness of the world but we must add to it and learn where we are positioned and take on the world using calculated principles, not raw emotion and rhetoric. The wiser we are the more benefits we will reap.

Economy, industry and technology are very important issues and every group or industry that is able to assist the economic development of Iran is useful. We must not fall prey to fantasies that we are able to achieve greatness in basic science. Basic science needs intense teamwork; it is not an individual endeavor. It is not as if a Newton will be found in Shiraz, the world has changed. It is expensive to work in large teams. Research therefore must be conducted locally to solve the smaller problems evident in our oil, metals and electronics industries. Our researches should first attend to solving these minor problems. It is far too early to take on major problems.

The experts who are employed within Iran are able to bring about such an eventuality. Directions given from overseas are not as helpful. It would be a different story if somebody –say 50 or 100 years ago– traveled from Europe to Iran to give a speech. The world has become interconnected. Books and the Internet and all forms of communication are available everywhere, it is our fault if they are not utilized. Vision and free choice is the answer, meaning better usage of the Internet and books.

In 2001 the worldwide sales of petrochemical products amounted to $1.6 trillion while oil sales did not exceed $700 billion, so we can see that the world is moving to convert precious natural resources in such a manner that it can market them for the price of gold. The founders of these trends are the scientific sections versed in basic sciences or technology. I have witnessed that in the last 100 years, in the noble peace prizes for chemistry and physics, 140 prizes have been awarded to the European scientists and 118 have gone to Americans. Naturally, we are newcomers to these fields but I wanted to reiterate that these sciences are the very foundation on which industry has been built.

The youth in Iran must not expect us to penetrate these markets; we must have patience so we can establish a foothold through cooperation, recognition and co-working. I saw good things taking place in the petrochemical forum thanks to the efforts of Mr. Nematzadeh and Mr. Peyvandi but the youth must not imagine that now that we have had such a good start we can compete with Shell tomorrow. The forum should serve as a starting point for us to find our place in the world, that each one of us must serve his share and leave behind outdated beliefs that the government must do our work.

We Easterners have an ethical obligation to serve the people of Iran and this includes the 100,000 renowned friends of ours who reside outside of Iran. Sometimes this service is possible through scientific means. Our doctors can come to help from time to time and our specialists can follow suit. In any case this thread must be held and the friendship between the people of Iran must continue, especially the scientists and intellectuals, who must forgive each other’s trespasses and cooperate.

One of the weaknesses in our culture is that we do not pay enough attention to unity. Working alone and divided will not get us anywhere and there are innovative powers in Iranian thought but this must be collected from the world to form qualified groups of Iranian specialists. Medical groups in the U.S. and our Iranian Academic Association in North America have instigated actions to this end and we will continue our efforts, but it is my sincere hope that the youth who are yet to arrive on the scene tend this seed until tender shoots sprout to form a tree.

In my opinion our managers are smart hardworking people but they must improve their knowledge of the world and must be aware that we can take steps to begin work not forgetting that we no longer enjoy the security we enjoyed 1000 years ago. But with optimism and unity we can not only improve things, but we can also get our secure place back. Many here resist hardships to become self-sufficient. I have faith in our industries whose center is the petroleum industry. The world as we know it is moving in the direction of genetics, energy and telecommunication. In China five million new mobile phones are sold every month and another two billion people will be connected to the Internet in three to four years.