A ceremony has been held to commemorate Research Week and to honour the IASBS’s researchers and scientific leaders. The ceremony, which was held in the Chemistry Amphitheatre, took place on 30 December 2024.

The guests included the IASBS founder, Prof Yousef Sobouti and a number of the managers of the province’s executive bodies. At the outset, the IASBS President, Prof Sadollah Nasiri Gheydari, welcomed the participants and recalled that the IASBS had recently been acknowledged as one of the top three universities in the country, thus emphasising the importance of decentralisation and scientific independence from the capital.

Prof Nasiri emphasised the importance of the industry’s investment in research and knowledge development calling for more communication between the IASBS lecturers and academic leaders, with the industry. He said, after approval by the university's board of trustees, the IASBS would soon add the Department of Relations with the Industry to its organisational chart so that we would be able to witness the country's industries become more capably knowledge-based, in line with the country's scientific and industrial goals.

The IASBS founder, Prof Yousef Sobouti, then said out of every 105 faculty members, there were, on average, 5 scientific leaders, demonstrating that if you want something badly enough, you will be able to achieve it in research and scientific work in the country. He expressed the need to pay attention to the output of the IASBS's outstanding scientific graduates in comparison to the average students admitted from the whole country and to compare it with other universities (which have top student entrants but  average graduates) saying that these brilliant results at the national level were the result of empowering students at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences. Referring to the theory of average people (that the strength and durability of the society depends on the efforts of ordinary people in that society), he called for more effort by the IASBS’s scientific leaders, lecturers, and students to achieve the goals of the university through direct contact with the industry.

Then, the Chancellor of Zanjan University, Prof Jalal Bazargan, emphasised the importance of producing knowledge in universities and the need for more effective communication between the industry and universities at the provincial and national levels. He said universities needed to move on current issues in the country, such as energy, drones, artificial intelligence, and other new technologies, as a prelude to further progress in industry and the country. This was followed by the President of the Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture of Zanjan Province, Dr Samad Yousefi Asl, who pointed out the lack of a common point of view between the industrialists on scientific investigation and researchers on industrial research investigation as applied to business and called for the need for flexibility on both sides. Referring to the new resolution passed by the chamber of commerce on the need for communication between the research and development units of manufacturers and industrialists in the province and local universities, and expressed hope for a bright future in the relationship between the industry and the universities in the province. Finally, the IASBS Vice President for Education, Research, Administration and Finance, Prof Rashid Zaare-Nahandi, reported on the university's research performance.

At the conclusion of the programme, the university's academic leaders, the top 1% and 2% highly cited researchers, lecturers holding national and international research awards, selected research faculty from different departments, and selected research students from various departments of the university were applauded and praised.

The names of those honoured during the Research Week commemoration ceremony may be found in the attached file.