| Sharif University of |
SUTA's brief history
Sharif University of Technology Association (SUTA) is the association of Sharif University of Technology Alumni, current and former faculty members and staff, and current students. It has been created after a few rounds of consultation and collaboration of the alumni and former faculty members of Sharif University of Technology, in 2000. In the 2000 Reunion attendants decided to create the association and nominated a committee to write the mission, vision and the bylaw of the association. In the 2002 reunion the attendants adopted the bylaw and elected the first official board of directors. SUTA is registered as a non-for-profit organization in the state of California, in the USA.
Board of Directors
According to the Charter of SUTA, it is run by an elected Board of Directors; the elections are hold every other year among the members. The serving BoD members since its inception in 2000 have been as shown in the following table (the list for the first two boards is not complete):| Year | President | Vice President |
Treasurer | Secretary | Director | Director | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000-2002 | Dr. Fredun Hojabri | Dr. Jalil Kamali | Dr. Fariba Aria | Dr. Ladan Behnia | Shariar Makarechi | - | - |
| 2002-2004 | Dr. Fredun Hojabri | - | Dr. Fariba Aria | Dr. Zahed Sheikh-ol-eslami | Mr. Manoher Misaghi |
Dr. Alinaghi Mashayekhi | Ms. Firoozeh Abbasian |
| 2004-2006 | Dr. Zahed Sheikh-ol-eslami | Dr. Fredun Hojabri- | Dr. Farzan Fallah | Ms. Neda Salehirad | Mr. Anousheh Hadzaad | Dr. Faranak Ghahremanpour | |
| 2006-2008 | Dr. Fariba Aria | Mr. Hanri Masoompour | Ms. Mahshid Agir | Ms. Neda Salehirad | Mr. Anousheh Hadzaad | Dr. Faranak Ghahremanpour | Dr. Shahriar Makarechi |
| 2008-2010 | Dr. Jalil Kamali | Dr. Shahriar Makarechi | Ms. Mahshid Agir | Ms. Farzin Radkani | Mr. Farrokh Malihi | Ms. Forouzandeh Tabibi | Ms. Mitra Tayareh |
| 2010-2012 | Mr. Farrokh Malihi | Mr. Ramin Behzadi | Ms. Negin Sadr | Dr. Bahram Zahir | Mr. Behnam Kamrani | Ms. Nastaran Zamani | Dr. Jalil Kamali |
| 2012- 2014 | Dr. Bahram Zahir | Ms. Elaheh Izadi | Ms. Negin Sadr | Dr. Vahid Arbab | Dr. Hamid Mostaghaci | Ms. Nahid Tousi | Dr. Masoud Olfat |
| 2014- 2016 | Dr. Masoud Olfat | Mr. Davoud Navaian | Sepehr Hamzelou | Dr. Shariar Makarechi | Bahar Abghari | Nastaran Zamani | Reza Kianmehr |
| 2016- 2017 | Dr. Soheila Kamal | Mr. Shayan Ghotbi | Dr. Siamak Aram | Dr. Ali Rasekh | Parastoo Jabbari | Dr. Hosein Akhavan | Mrs. Farzin Radkani |
| 2017- 2018 | Mr. Shayan Ghotbi | Dr. Siamak Aram | Dr. Siamak Aram | Dr. Ali Rasekh | Parastoo Jabbari | Dr. Hosein Akhavan | Mrs. Farzin Radkani |
| 2018-2020 | Mr. Farrokh Malihi | Dr. Farzad Khomami | Mrs. Shiv. Davoodpour | Dr. Shariar Makarechi | Dr. Dariush Alipour | Dr. Siamak Aram | Mohammad Reza Motamed |
| 2020-2022 | Dr. Mehrdad Sarfaraz | Ms. Niloufar Salehi | Ms. Sepideh Soheilpour | Mr. Hassan Gharibi (Resigned) Ms. Niloufar Salehi | Ms. Mojgan Eelioun | Dr. Yaser Kerachian | Dr. Arsham Mazaheri (Resigned) Dr. Bijan Azadi |
Global Reunions
SUTA has had a general meeting biannually, as shown in the following table and map:
| Reunion | Year | City | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 2000 | San Diego |
USA |
| 2nd | 2002 | Toronto | Canada |
| 3rd | 2004 | Heidelberg | Germany |
| 4th | 2006 | Santa Clara | USA |
| 5th | 2008 | Vancouver | Canada |
| 6th | 2010 | Gutenberg | Sweden |
| 7th | 2012 | Ottawa | Canada |
| 8th | 2014 | Milan | Italy |
| 9th | 2016 | Washington DC | Washington DC |
| 10th | 2018 | Global | Global |
| Several | 2020 | Online | Zoom |
| 12th | 2022 | Online | Zoom |
SUTA's impact on canceling the scientific embargo of Iranian academicians
SUTA has helped convincing IEEE and some other scientific and professional societies to retract from their policies to put Iranian scholars under embargo, and for instance not accepting papers from Iran. This effort, with the strong support of Dr. Freidun Hojabri succeeded to persuade those societies that science could not and should not follow the political games.
Awards
In 2010, SUTA’s Board of Directors launched two award programs, namely SUTA’s Dr. Mojtahedi’s Innovation Award and SUTA's Dr. Amin's Lifetime Achievement Award. This was followed by adding three new awards in 2012. For details on the awards history, please refer to the awards section on this site.
The 2006 incident in California
In 2006 the general meeting has been held in Santa Clara, California. Many alumni joined together from all around the world. Among them there has been also many coming from Iran. Although these people had obtained US visas to come to the reunion, few days prior to the event, the US administration canceled their visas without giving them appropriate notice. As a result, many of them have been denied the entry at the airports when they arrived into the American soil and many had spent a night in jail before they could fly back to their country. SUTA's board of directors and legal counselors tried to obtain some explanation for this behavior of the US administration and perhaps an apology with little, if any success.