Saeed Sohrabpour

Who is Saeed Sohrabpour?

Dr. Saeed Sohrabpour is an Iranian academic and the 15th chancellor of Sharif University of Technology from 1997 to 2010.

He graduated from University of Tehran and later received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley.

Sohrabpour was the only leader of a top university still in place since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office until his resignation.

On August 17, 2010, Iranian minister of Science, Research and Technology accepted his resignation and appointed Reza Roosta Azad as his successor. One of the most controversial incidents of his presence at Sharif happened on March 7, 2005 when he was beaten up and got injured by some of Sharif students. On that day, the Basij student branch at Sharif held a funeral for 5 unidentified slain bodies during Iran-Iraq war to bury them inside the mosque of Sharif campus. There was a conflict on that day between groups of students who were not supporting the act and the Basij. Many students were beaten up inside the mosque by the Basiji members, some of them were gathered up from outside Sharif. As a result, some angry students headed to the Chancellor's office who they thought was behind this or did not support them against the aliens among whom was believed to be people from Security Services and Revolutionary Guard and Basij. The gathering in front of Sohrabpour's office resulted in his beating. The act was considered as outrageous by many students, organizations and the government also.