Kourosh Ziabari and Ahmadreza Tavassoli: Dr. Saba Valadkhan is a world-renowned biomedical scientist and the Assistant Professor of Case Western Reserve University of USA.

After graduating from the Tehran University of Medial Sciences, Saba Valadkhan moved to New York where she could continue her further studies at the Columbia University upon the fellowship which she had been granted from RNA Research Society.

This young Iranian scientist has won several international awards for her effective, determinant contribution to the field of Molecular Biology such as Peter Sajovic Memorial Award, Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award and James Howard McGregor Prize.

In 2005, she was awarded the American Academy for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS) award of Young Scientist of the Year for her breakthrough in understanding the mechanism of spliceosomes which was something unprecedented and innovative until that time.

By developing a new strategy to prevent the occurrence of some disastrous cancer types, she identified and determined a slight and insignificant deficiency in the functionality of DNA strands and found an effective way of solving it.

Following is the text of exclusive interview with Dr. Saba Valadkhan in which a stack of interesting subjects around the details of her latest discovery, scientific community of Iran and the prospect of research in Iran and has been discussed.

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Read the Interview from “The People’s Voice“, Middle East Youth, Payvand, MediaLeft

Kourosh Ziabari and Ahmadreza Tavassoli: The second anniversary of Anousheh Ansari’s adventurous travel to the spatial station as the first Iranian space explorer passed over with the reticence of global media who have been busy analyzing the very earliest “side effects” of President-elect Barack Obama’s victory in the 2008 US Presidential Elections.

In the heat of Ansari’s space voyage, American media broached bunches of controversial issues such as the reluctance of half-blooded astronaut to introduce herself as Iranian or Muslim, but she never found the opportunity to clarify this.Furthermore, most of the newspapers or websites dedicated their conversations to professional and technical matters when interviewing Anousheh Ansari which caused many stories to remain untold.

Following is the text of exclusive interview with the first female private space explorer Anousheh Ansari, the Iranian businesswomen who has perpetuated the name of Iran in the 2007 edition of Guinness World Records Book with her everlasting record.

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You can also read the whole interview here

Dar al-Funun (Persian: ??? ??????), established in 1851, was the first modern institution of higher learning in Persia.
Founded by Amir Kabir, then the royal vizier to Nasereddin Shah, the Shah of Iran, Dar al-Funun originally was conceived as a polytechnic to train upper-class Persian youth in Medicine, Engineering, Military Science, and Geology. It was similar in scope and purpose to American land grant colleges like Purdue and Texas A&M. Like them, it developed and expanded its mission over the next hundred years, eventually becoming the University of Tehran.
The institute was planned by the British educated Mirza Reza Mohandes, and built by the architect Muhammad Taqi-khan Memar-Bashi under the supervision of the Qajari prince Bahram Mirza. Facilities such as an assembly hall, a theater, library, cafeteria, and a publishing house were built for the institute.
Many parts of the institute were later on absorbed and merged into the newly establishing Tehran University. The “Faculty of Medicine” for example, was particularly the successor to the Dar al-Funun Department of Medicine, established in 1851, which had become the School of Medicine (Madreseh-ye tebb) in 1919.[2]
The elite school was training 287 students by 1889, and had graduated 1100 students by 1891. During this time, the faculty consisted of 16 Iranian, and 26 European professors.

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Kourosh Ziabari - FavaNews: “With regard to the necessity of obeying the laws and borders, we have to say that global media can not accomplish any of their moral and professional missions with a closed, dark, sealing wax and dependent situation”, said Professor Yahya Kamalipour Ravari, the headmaster of communication and creative arts department of US Purdue university, in an exclusive interview with Iranian FAVA news agency.

“Media are parts of a general structure that contains culture, literature, economy and politics”, added professor Kamaalipour, “if this structure doesn’t provide the suitable bases and backgrounds of constructive and respectable critique with a good impression, it artificially would restrict the global media in research and solution providing and also the development of each society.”

Professor Kamalipour, the former teacher of Franciscan university of Ohio state also said: “if defending the speech freedom besides legal, professional rights and saving their position still is the most important challenge of Persian journalists, then how can we expect them to give importance to their responsibilities? if they are searching for red lines all times or fearing from making critics from government directors, we can not wait for them to reach and gather international identity and credibility.”

The chief editor of global media journal with making hint and allusion to the weakness and fainting of Persian journalists and ITC specialists in making relations to the global media network, also said that “unfortunately, few Persian journalists are famous or under consideration around the world. However some foreign media and journals abroad of Iran will make some interviews with Iranians, but I don’t know any Persian competitor or rival with Mr. Jeff Jarvis. Although some of Persian university teachers are well-known, famous and interviewed by the media of European and American countries like Doctor Mo’tamedNejaad, Doctor Shokrkhaah, Doctor Haadiaan and so on.”

PS: Memorizing the past (2006), Michael Allen admires Kourosh Ziabari !

Kourosh Ziabari - Futsal Planet: We have just passed 2 weeks since the curtains of 2008 FIFA Futsal World Cup tumbled on the stage dramatically for the squad of Hossein Shams when Brazilian captain “Vinicius” hoisted the championship trophy superciliously in front of 16,000 audiences attending at the Ginásio do Maracanãzinho stadium.

The Iranian side which was a medal favorite, lost its hopes to qualify for the semi-finals after failing to defend its 5-4 triumph over Italy in less than 50 seconds and finishing with a painful 5-5 draw with the European opponent at a second group round match in Rio de Janeiro.

Although the veteran captain Vahid Shamsaee who carries the title of world’s all-time best goal-scorer was placed among the WC’s top ten players alongside the astonishing star of Iranian box Mostafa Nazari, he missed the precious chance of winning the “Golden Ball trophy” while most of the commentators, journalists and observers had anticipated to see him on the stage.

After drawing with the defending champion Spain in the opening match, most of the analysts and spectators confessed that Iran deserves to be ranked as one of the finishing fours.

However, that dream came not true and Iran eliminated by a “one goal” shortage in the very closing moments of its match with Italy, but experienced a two steps spring in the overall FIFA futsal teams ranking of October 2008 as the world’s 4th power, passing Portugal, Russia, Argentina and Ukraine.

Up to now, Iran national futsal team has won 9 titles out of 10 Asian championship editions and grabbed a silver medal of 2007 Grand Prix de Futsal too which is an informal, small-scaled world cup being held annually in Brazil.

Moreover, it might be interesting to know that the Iranian swarm has won its first international appearance 19-6 against a Persian Gulf rival, Kuwait in a friendly match hosted by Hong Kong and made its greatest victory over Singapore by thrashing the southeastern competitor 36-0.

In the 2008 FIFA Futsal World Cup which received wide and unpredictable media coverage worldwide particularly by the French and British media whose countries lacked a representative in Rio de Janeiro, the Iranian youth caught the eyes and attracted millions of TV viewers with their fascinating performance where they trounced all of their group round rivals excluding the defending champions Spain which tied with 3-3.

The Iranian white-wearers defeated Czech 3-2, demolished Libya 4-2, broke Uruguay 4-2 down and pushed the Spanish tornados to the crater of a historic lose so entered the second group round with 10 points and 14 goals scored with a same point of Spain.

In the second round, they endorsed the slightest win of Brazil in the last years and lost a 1-0 game while they had great chances for a draw or even a fabulous win. For the second step, they surpassed Ukraine 5-4 which was not a desirable win because they needed a 2-goal-long win to clinch a semi-final berth by drawing against Italy.

Finally, the breath-taking match with the European champions Italy came up and the Iranian medal favorites stepped the battlefield without Vahid Shamsaee because of his double-carded state. They were also deprived of their powerful striker Majid Latifi because of the injury.

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