The IASBS President, Prof Sadollah Nasiri Gheydari, has held a press conference with news sites, news agencies, and news media.

In this hospitable meeting, which took place in the meeting hall of the President’s Offices on 20 January 2025 and was attended by most of the journalists, news content producers, and members of the media active in the scientific and academic fields in the province, Dr Nasiri Gheydari welcomed everyone and talked about different aspects and specific characteristics of the university. He said the inclusion of 5 IASBS faculty members among the country's leading scientists, 4 faculty members on the list of the top 1% highly-cited Iranian researchers in the world, 8 faculty members on the list of the top 2% highly-cited Iranian researchers in the world, and the IASBS's placement among the top 3 universities in the country was attributed to the innovations and efforts of the university's esteemed founder, Professor Yousef Sobouti, and the tireless and unwavering efforts of all members of the university, including lecturers, students, and staff, in improving quality over more than 32 years. Dr Nasiri said the IASBS's ability to stand among the first rank universities in the country was because the IASBS had believed from the start that it “could” do this. Given the government's wish to decentralise away from the capital, he asked the media to make more effort to cover the university's activities as an excellent example of this point, i.e., that good work did not necessarily have to be done in Tehran.

Dr Nasiri then gave statistics on various departments, research institutes, and sections, and listed the university's top indicators (according to the standards of the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology), such as the ratio of faculty members to students, the number of internationally indexed articles per capita to faculty members, the number of educational, welfare, and teaching-aid spaces per student, the annual average number of conferences held, and the per capita research grant per student.

He said the University's Science and Technology Park was one of the top 7 university science and technology parks in the country, and that coordination between the university and the park was a fundamental factor in the relationship between science and industry. He explained the characteristics of this complex along with the introduction of the plan to transfer land to industrial and knowledge-based companies.

Mentioning the generous and prominent help by donors to the university in building the Torkaman Library, the Dining Hall, the university’s mosque, and helping to equip the Electronic Materials Laboratory and the university's Counselling and Health Centre, Prof Nasiri Gheydari said the support and goodwill of the donors were among the factors affecting the university's development.

The IASBS President then recalled that 13 September, the birthday of Abu Raihan Biruni, had been named the National Day of Basic Sciences and asked all members of the media and news organisations for cooperation and favourable news coverage during the special programme that the IASBS had lined up on that occasion in the forthcoming September. In view of the depth of the media's influence on society, he called for greater attention to basic sciences, which he said were themselves the driving force behind science and technology and brought about development in other fields.

At the conclusion of the press conference, journalists and members of the media raised various questions including per capita government budget for universities, undergraduate enrolment, the need to start a Philosophy of Science degree programme, suggestions to provide information about the university's achievements before the Zanjan Friday Prayer sermons, and communication with the industry’s “research and development” units. In response to these questions, Prof Nasiri Gheydari expounded on the principle of national consensus and empathy towards the government and emphasised the need to prevent a culture of destruction in the provincial media, to make every effort and provide every support possible in implementing government programmes, and to adhere to further national consensus.

The news coverage of the press conference in news agencies and news sites is as follows:

Islamic Republic of Iran News Agency (IRNA): irna.ir/news/85724850

Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA): isna.ir/news/1403110100503

Fars News Agency: farsnews.ir/S_RAHMANI/1737371316358476959

Fakher Zanjan News Agency: fakherzanjan.ir

Shabestan Zanjan News Agency: shabestan.news/news/1799670

Zanjan Online Sports News Agency: zanjanvarzeshi24.ir

Fars News Agency (Sunday, 26 January 2025): farsnews.ir/S_RAHMANI/1737863399810600647