Sharif University of Technology is a public research university in Tehran, Iran. It is widely considered as the nation's most prestigious and leading institution for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.
Joseph Samuel Nye Jr. is an American political scientist. He and Robert Keohane co-founded the international relations theory of neoliberalism, which they developed in their 1977 book Power and Interdependence. Together with Keohane, he developed the concepts of asymmetrical and complex interdependence. They also explored transnational relations and world politics in an edited volume in the 1970s. More recently, he pioneered the theory of soft power. His notion of "smart power" became popular with the use of this phrase by members of the Clinton Administration and the Obama Administration.
Paula Jon Dobriansky is an American diplomat, public official, and foreign policy expert who served as Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs (2001–2009) and the President's Envoy to Northern Ireland (2007–2009). A specialist in Central/East European affairs and the former Soviet Union, trans-Atlantic relations, and political-military affairs, Dobriansky held key senior roles in the administrations of five U.S. presidents.
Ashton Baldwin Carter was an American government official and academic who served as the 25th United States secretary of defense from February 2015 to January 2017. He later served as director of the Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School.
Jason Gaverick Matheny is a United States national security expert serving as president and CEO of the RAND Corporation since July 2022. He was previously a senior appointee in the Biden administration from March 2021 to June 2022. He served as deputy assistant to the president for technology and national security, deputy director for national security in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and coordinator for technology and national security at the White House National Security Council.
Saeed Sohrabpour, , Full Professor of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Sharif University of Technology, has been the vice president and chief adviser of Islamic Republic of Iran’s National Elites Foundation since 2011. He has also been elected as Iranian Science and Culture Hall of Fame and was the chancellor of Sharif University of Technology from 1997 to 2010. He is a member of the board of trustees of Iran’s National Library and Archives of I.R.. Furthermore, during his professional life, Sohrabpour has published prolific scientific papers in various high-ranked journals. Prof Sohrabpour is the president of Research Institute for Science, Technology and Industry Policy Making at the Sharif University of Technology, the chairman of the board for Iran Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise Award (MAKE), Center for Knowledge-based Management, and the chairman of the board for Iran EFQM Representative as well. Besides various honors and awards, he has been a fellow of Academy of Sciences of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Brenda Shaffer is an American scholar who holds positions as Fellow with the Atlantic Council and professor at University of Haifa. Shaffer was the former research director of the Caspian Studies Program at Harvard Kennedy School and past president of the Foreign Policy Section of the American Political Science Association. She specializes on energy in international relations and energy policy in the Caspian region and has written or edited several books of these topics, including "Energy Politics" and "Beyond the Resource Curse." Shaffer has also written a number of books on the topic of identity and culture in the Caucasus including explorations of Azeri literature and culture. She has been accused of lobbying for Azerbaijan and failing to disclose conflicts of interest. According to the 2019 book Lobbying in the European Union: Strategies, Dynamics and Trends, published by Springer: "research shows that her [Shaffer's] entire career has benefitted from financial support from sources tied to Azerbaijan's leadership".
The Robert and Renée Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, also known as the Belfer Center, is a research center located at the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States.
Sayed Khatiboleslam Sadrnezhaad is an Iranian distinguished professor of materials science and engineering, at the Sharif University of Technology. He received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1979 and his B.Sc. from the Sharif University of Technology in 1974. He was entitled as 1% world's top scientists by the ESI citation database from Thomson Reuters 2015 and 2016. He is the holder of a research chair from the Iran National Science Foundation (INSF). His current interest is in the emerging bio-nano and SMA fields of the materials science and engineering discipline.
John Paul Holdren is an American scientist who served as the senior advisor to President Barack Obama on science and technology issues through his roles as assistant to the president for science and technology, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).
Malek Ashtar University of Technology (MUT) is a public research university of engineering, science in Iran. Founded in 1984, MUT's main campus is located at Tehran, the capital of Iran. Its other campuses are located in Isfahan and Urmia. The university is named after Malik al-Ashtar, one of the most loyal companions of Ali Ibn Abi Talib.
The MIT Center for International Studies (CIS) is an academic research center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It sponsors work focusing on international relations, security studies, international migration, human rights and justice, political economy and technology policy. The center was founded in 1951.
Middle Eastern Americans are Americans of Middle Eastern background. Although once considered Asian Americans, the modern definition of "Asian American" now excludes people with West Asian backgrounds.
Hassan Abbas is a Pakistani-American scholar and academic in the field of South Asian and Middle Eastern studies. His research focuses have been on security issues pertaining to governance, law enforcement and counterterrorism. Abbas worked in the governments of Benazir Bhutto (1994–1996) and Musharraf (1999–2001). He currently resides in the US.
Ambuj D. Sagar is the Vipula and Mahesh Chaturvedi Professor of Policy Studies at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. As of October 2022, he has been appointed as the deputy director at IIT Delhi. His interests broadly lie in science and technology policy, environmental policy, and development policy, with a particular focus on the interactions between technology and society. While his current research focuses mainly on energy innovation and climate policy, he also studies, more broadly, various facets of technology innovation, environmental policy politics and processes, and engineering education and research.
Matthew Bunn is an American nuclear and energy policy analyst, currently a professor of practice at the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University. He is the Co-principal Investigator for the Belfer Center's Project on Managing the Atom.
Nawaf Essam Ahmad Obaid is a Saudi Arabian political scientist, and a former foreign policy & media advisor. He currently serves as the CEO of the Essam & Dalal OBAID Foundation (EDOF) in Geneva, a Commissioner at the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) in The Hague, and a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Department of War Studies at King's College London.
Kayhan Barzegar is an Iranian professor of international relations, political strategist and researcher of International affairs. He is the chair of the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran. Barzegar is known for his works on Iranian foreign policy.
