Muhammad Sahimi

Sahimi received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Tehran in 1977. After briefly working for the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), he received a scholarship from the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. He traveled to the US in 1978{{cite web|url=http://irancoverage.com/2007/11/05/experts-no-evidence-of-iranian-nuclear-weapons-program/ |title=Iran Coverage Experts: No Evidence of Iranian Nuclear Weapons Program | |publisher=Irancoverage.com |date=5 November 2007 |accessdate=21 October 2011}} (where he has since remained), completing his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota in 1984. He then moved to the University of Southern California, becoming Chairman of his department from 1999 to 2005. Since then, he has held the NIOC Chair. He has also been a visiting professor in Australia and a consultant to many industrial corporations.{{cite web | url=http://viterbi.usc.edu/directory/cv/sahimi_muhammad_cv.pdf | title=Muhammad Sahimi CV | publisher=USC Viterbi School of Engineering | accessdate=26 December 2017}}

He was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2023, "for fundamental contributions to the development of percolation theory and statistical physics, specifically in the characterization of heterogeneous porous materials and media, as well as the study of flow and transport processes occurring therein".{{cite web|url=https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/fellowships/archive-all.cfm?initial=&year=2023|title=2023 Fellows|work=APS Fellow Archive|publisher=American Physical Society|access-date=2023-10-19}}

Sahimi writes in broad support of Iranian reformists, one of the two main political camps inside the Islamic Republic regime; the other one is Iranian Conservatives.{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2009/06/reformists-on-the-rise.html |title=Reformists on the Rise |work= Tehran Bureau / FRONTLINE |publisher=PBS |accessdate=21 October 2011}}

Since 2003, Sahimi has written many articles on the subject of Iranian politics (particularly the Iranian nuclear programme) for websites such as Payvand, Antiwar.com{{cite web|url=http://original.antiwar.com/author/sahimi/ |title=Muhammad Sahimi |publisher=Original.antiwar.com |accessdate=21 October 2011}} and the Huffington Post.{{cite news|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/muhammad-sahimi |title=Muhammad Sahimi |work=HuffPost |accessdate=21 October 2011}} He has been a regular columnist for Tehran Bureau since 2008,{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2010/03/muhammad-sahimi.html |title=Spotlight: Muhammad Sahimi – Tehran Bureau | FRONTLINE |publisher=PBS |date=1 March 2010 |accessdate=21 October 2011}} and has written occasional pieces for the Los Angeles Times,{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-jun-22-oe-sahimi22-story.html |title=Iranian American is twice victimized |work=Los Angeles Times |date=22 June 2007 |access-date=21 October 2011 |first=Muhammad |last=Sahimi}} the New York Times,{{cite news|last=Sahimi |first=Muhammad |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/opinion/29iht-edsahimi.html |title=Op-Ed – Iran's Power Struggle |location=Iran |work=The New York Times |date=28 April 2009 |accessdate=21 October 2011}} the Wall Street Journal{{Cite web|url=http://viterbi.usc.edu/assets/022/12892.pdf|title=Wayback Machine|website=viterbi.usc.edu}} the Harvard International Review{{cite web|url=http://hir.harvard.edu/energy/forced-to-fuel |title=Forced to Fuel – Iran's Nuclear Energy Program |work=Harvard International Review |date=6 May 2006 |accessdate=21 October 2011}} and The Progressive.{{cite web|url=http://www.progressive.org/node/4253 |title="Leave Us Alone," Iranian Reformers Say |work=The Progressive |accessdate=21 October 2011}}

He has, on many occasions, defended Iran's nuclear program as being

peaceful, and the actions of Iran as being essentially legal and justifiable (originally in a seven-part series at Payvand entitled Iran's Nuclear Program).{{cite web |url=http://www.payvand.com/news/03/oct/1015.html |title=Iran's Nuclear Program. Part I: Its History |publisher=Payvand.com |accessdate=21 October 2011 |archive-date=14 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190514125548/http://www.payvand.com/news/03/oct/1015.html |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=http://www.payvand.com/news/03/oct/1022.html |title=Iran's Nuclear Program. Part II: Are Nuclear Reactors Necessary? |publisher=Payvand.com |date=14 August 2003 |accessdate=21 October 2011 |archive-date=18 July 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060718171504/http://www.payvand.com/news/03/oct/1022.html |url-status=dead }}{{cite web|url=http://www.payvand.com/news/03/oct/1039.html |title=Iran's Nuclear Program. Part III: The Emerging Crisis |publisher=Payvand.com |date=12 September 2003 |accessdate=21 October 2011}}{{cite web|url=http://www.payvand.com/news/04/dec/1056.html |title=Iran's Nuclear Energy Program. Part IV: Economic Analysis of the Program |publisher=Payvand.com |accessdate=21 October 2011}}{{cite web|url=http://www.payvand.com/news/04/dec/1186.html |title=Iran's Nuclear Energy Program. Part V: From the United States Offering Iran Uranium Enrichment Technology to Suggestions for Creating Catastrophic Industrial Failure |publisher=Payvand.com |accessdate=21 October 2011}}{{cite web|url=http://www.payvand.com/news/05/sep/1070.html |title=Iran's Nuclear Energy Program, Part VI: The European Union's Proposal, Iran's Defiance, and the Emerging Crisis |publisher=Payvand.com |accessdate=21 October 2011}}{{cite web|url=http://www.payvand.com/news/07/dec/1044.html |title=Iran's Nuclear Energy Program. Part VII: Are Referral of Iran's Nuclear Dossier to the Security Council and Resolutions 1696, 1737, and 1747 Legal? |publisher=Payvand.com |accessdate=21 October 2011}} In the process, he has frequently leveled criticism against other writers on the subject, accusing Con Coughlin (of the UK Daily Telegraph) of knowingly spreading lies and disinformation,{{cite web|url=http://www.antiwar.com/orig/sahimi.php?articleid=14265 |title=Who's Telling the Truth About Iran's Nuclear Program? |author=Muhammad Sahimi |publisher=Antiwar.com |date=18 February 2009 |accessdate=21 October 2011}} and David Albright of exceptional bias.{{cite web|url=http://www.antiwar.com/orig/sahimi.php |title=A New Judith Miller for Iran Hawks? |author=Muhammad Sahimi |publisher=Antiwar.com |date=18 March 2009 |accessdate=21 October 2011}} (Albright responded to the criticism in a program on antiwar.com radio).{{Citation needed|date=September 2011}} He has also criticized two former Deputy Directors-General of the IAEA, Olli Heinonen and Pierre Goldschmidt, citing unnamed sources to accuse Heinonen of breaking the IAEA protocols by leaking confidential information (to David Albright) and of spreading unconfirmed claims about the contents of a laptop that was supposedly stolen from Iran and given to Western intelligence agencies, as part of a "crusade against Iran." He also accused Goldschmidt of having a "personal agenda"{{cite web|url=http://payvand.com/news/07/dec/1044.html |title=Iran's Nuclear Energy Program. Part VII: Are Referral of Iran's Nuclear Dossier to the Security Council and Resolutions 1696, 1737, and 1747 Legal? |publisher=Payvand.com|date= 12 May 2007 |accessdate=21 October 2011}} about Iran's nuclear program, while also disputing his assessment that Iran has violated the NPT.

In his writings on Iran's nuclear program, Sahimi has also expressed the view that the United Nation's Security Council sanction resolutions against Iran are illegal. Because of his strong support for the Islamic Republic of Iran's nuclear program and the similarity of his arguments to those used by the Iranian government in its IAEA submissions,e.g., {{Cite web| url=http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Infcircs/2008/infcirc724.pdf | title=Communication dated 26 March 2008 received from the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Agency | accessdate=2009-09-20 | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100911030304/http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Infcircs/2008/infcirc724.pdf | archivedate=11 September 2010}} he has been accused of being close to the government in Tehran. Sahimi has denied these accusations but has stated that his articles have been used without his knowledge by members of the Iranian political establishment, including Ayatollah Rafsanjani.{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2010/07/the-drumbeats-of-war-with-iran-are-getting-louder.html |title=The Drumbeats of War with Iran Are Getting Louder |date= 8 August 2010|work= Tehran Bureau / FRONTLINE |publisher=PBS |accessdate=21 October 2011}}

1. Applications of Percolation Theory (1994){{cite book|last=Zallen |first=Richard |title=Applications of Percolation Theory (9780748400768): M Sahini, M Sahimi: Books |date=27 January 1994 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=0748400761 }}
2. Flow and Transport in Porous Media and Fractured Rock (1995); second edition (2011).{{cite book|last=Zoback |first=Mark D. |title=Flow and Transport in Porous Media and Fractured Rock: From Classical Methods to Modern Approaches (9783527292608): Muhammad Sahimi: Books |date=22 February 1995 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=3527292608 }}
3. Heterogeneous Materials I, Linear Transport, and Optical Properties (2003){{cite book|last=Dauxois |first=Thierry |title=Heterogeneous Materials I: Linear Transport and Optical Properties (Interdisciplinary Applied Mathematics) (v. 1) (9780387001678): Muhammad Sahimi: Books |date=15 May 2003 |publisher=Springer |isbn=0387001670 }}
4. Heterogeneous Materials II, Nonlinear and Breakdown Properties and Atomistic Modeling (2003){{cite web|url=https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VHZWPU |title=Heterogeneous Materials II: Nonlinear and Breakdown Properties and Atomistic Modeling: v. two eBook: Muhammad Sahimi: Kindle Store |website=Amazon |accessdate=21 October 2011}}

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Category:Living people

Category:University of Minnesota alumni

Category:University of Southern California faculty

Category:Iranian chemical engineers

Category:1954 births

Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society