The Iran plane crash dealt a huge blow to Canadian universities. Here are some of the bright minds that were lost

A university researcher developing a deeper understanding of a deadly microscopic parasite that causes a disease affecting millions. A graduate student researching how climate change affects lake systems in southern Ontario. And a college teacher who worked tirelessly to improve electrical engineering tech courses for students, whom he always welcomed to his office with a warm smile.

They are among 50 members of university and college communities across the country whose lives were cut short Wednesday when a jetliner crashed in Iran. All 176 people on board were killed, among them 138 who were en route to Canada.

“Just think of the potential that was on board that plane and it’s been extinguished,” said Paul Davidson, president of Universities Canada, which is the voice of universities nationwide. “We will never get that back.”

It’s estimated that 46 students, researchers and faculty from 19 universities, and four from three colleges, perished when the Ukraine International Airlines jet exploded. According to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Flight 752 was likely downed by an Iranian surface-to-air missile.

“This is a national tragedy for Canada,” Davidson told the Star. “We’re hearing stories in the biggest universities and the smallest universities, in the sciences, social sciences and humanities — and that adds to the sense of loss.

“It’s devastating in labs because these were some of the brightest, most tenacious researchers in the country, working in a wide range of fields, from advanced computer engineering to Indigenous conservation strategies.”

His comments were echoed by David Lindsay, president of the Council of Ontario Universities, which represents universities provincewide.

“It is difficult to fully comprehend the scale of this loss,” he said. “The lost research, teaching, friendship and contributions to university and student life are irreplaceable … (It) will be deeply felt by our communities for years to come.”

Linda Franklin, president of Colleges Ontario, noted the “deep ties” of the province’s colleges to their “diverse communities.”

“They are close-knit and the devastating loss of faculty and students due to the airplane crash in Iran is felt deeply.”

The Star asked members of the academic community to offer insight into some of the work pursued by their colleagues who were lost on Flight 752. These are their responses, which have been edited and condensed.

Ghanimat Azhdari, PhD student at the University of Guelph

Ghanimat had been in Iran over the December holiday break to visit family and was returning to the University of Guelph, where she was a student in my lab at the department of geography, environment and geomatics. Ghanimat was an Indigenous person who was born into the nomadic Qashqai tribe in southwestern Iran.

Like Indigenous peoples across the planet, including many First Nations, Métis and Inuit in Canada, Ghanimat had a very strong personal relationship to her ancestral territories in Iran, consisting of vast arid grasslands, rangelands and deserts. Scientists now believe that over 80 per cent of the world’s biodiversity is found in Indigenous and tribal lands.

She had dedicated her life to protecting these places, which she would often describe to me as “territories of life,” as they are not just the habitat of endangered plants and animals, but are also the ancient landscapes that have sustained Indigenous peoples, like her own community, for thousands of years. Ghanimat’s PhD thesis was devoted to exploring the biocultural richness of Indigenous lands, such as sacred mountains and rivers, berry picking areas and places where medicinal plants are harvested.

Using participatory community mapping methods, Ghanimat had become an expert in working with local tribespeople to collect and map these critical areas of both ecological and cultural significance. She was particularly well suited for this type of research as she could easily slip between two worlds: the Indigenous world in which sophisticated ecological knowledge about plants and animals is captured within songs, language and cultural traditions and the western science world of data, satellite images and statistical analyses.

For her PhD dissertation, Ghanimat had hoped to partner with First Nations in Canada to begin mapping the biocultural richness of the boreal forest, using participatory mapping methods as well as remote sensing and geographic information systems analysis. Her first meeting with the Miawpukek First Nation in Newfoundland was scheduled for next month. In an email that she sent to me from Iran a few days ago, she described her excitement about meeting the community and her worry that her winter boots and jacket might not be warm enough for the notoriously biting Newfoundland winter.

The loss of Ghanimat Azhdari, as well as so many other similarly talented students in the Tehran air disaster, is devastating — particularly for university communities across the country. The one thing that brings me a little comfort in coping with Ghanimat’s death is the knowledge that my dear student was a powerful and passionate young leader in defence of Indigenous peoples and their territories, and that her life’s work will continue.

Faisal Moola, Azhdari’s supervisor, is an associate professor in the department of geography, environment and geomatics, University of Guelph.

Forough Khadem, recent PhD in immunology from the University of Manitoba

Dr. Khadem’s research focused on understanding how the immune system protects us against a deadly microscopic parasite called Leishmania. Leishmaniasis, which is the disease caused by this parasite, is prevalent in more than 70 countries. An estimated 10 to 15 million cases occur worldwide and about 500,000 new cases occur annually. Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), a form of the disease that affects the liver and spleen, is the most dangerous and if untreated leads to death.

Dr. Khadem observed that Leishmania parasites hijack a host enzyme to increase the number and function of a certain type of immune cells that dampen immune response. She disrupted this enzyme and infected animals became able to clear parasites. She found that the parasites infect a special type of liver cells. Removal of these liver cells during infection or blocking the activity of this enzyme was very effective in curing leishmaniasis. Her work provided novel understandings into immunity against VL and has implications for antimicrobial immunotherapy and drug/vaccine development against leishmaniasis. These findings were published in high-impact journals.

She won several prestigious research awards and was among six individuals selected across Canada to participate in the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in 2018. She was a great mentor and role model to young women in science. With her passing, humanity has lost a rising star in science.

Jude Uzonna, the supervisor of Khadem’s doctoral research, is associate dean (research) and professor of immunology and medical microbiology at the Max Rady College of Medicine, University of Manitoba.

Mari Foroutan, PhD student at the University of Waterloo

Mari was a student in the faculty of environment and her climate change research looked at how small lake systems in southern Ontario respond to a changing climate and increasing extreme weather. Her specific expertise was on water temperature and water quality.

Mari, whose work was widely published, had established a lake observatory for this work and was developing state-of-the-art methods using field sensors, high-resolution remote sensing from drones, and numerical models to measure, monitor and predict surface temperature, thermal structure, ice cover and water quality of the lake with climate warming.

In addition to her PhD work she was also conducting projects with international collaborators looking at Earth analogues for similar features on planet Mars, such as aeolian ridges and megaripples found in deserts of Iran and Libya.

Claude Duguay is a professor of geography and environmental management at the University of Waterloo.

Hadis Hayatdavoudi, PhD student at Western University

Hadis Hayatdavoudi earned B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrochemistry and corrosion engineering in Shiraz, Iran, before beginning her PhD program in chemistry at Western University in 2018.

Her PhD research goal was to determine whether hydrogen atoms, a byproduct of corrosion reactions, would have an influence on the longevity of copper-coated steel containers for disposal of used nuclear fuel. The work is of interest to the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (Toronto), who are charged with ensuring the safe, permanent disposal of Canada’s used nuclear reactor fuel.

Her research results are thoroughly documented and stored according to the strict quality assurance plan under which her work was carried out, and will not be lost. They will be incorporated into papers for publication in peer-reviewed journals, and Hadis will be fully acknowledged as co-author.

We have, however, lost the bright mind behind that research work, and although we have a solid group of talented young researchers carefully studying other aspects of the corrosion performance of used nuclear fuel disposal containers, as of yesterday we have nobody carrying out experiments on the role of hydrogen.

Supervisor Jamie Noël is an assistant professor in the department of chemistry at Western University.

Saeed K. Kashani, PhD student at the University of Ottawa

Saeed was entering the fourth year of his chemistry PhD degree at the University of Ottawa. His focus was on organic synthetic: the branch of chemistry that deals with how to construct complex, valuable molecules from commercially available chemical building blocks.

In particular, Saeed was demonstrating how cutting-edge automation technology could allow chemical synthesis to be carried out more efficiently and with reduced waste compared to the current state of the art. By collaborating with pharmaceutical companies and technology experts, Saeed got the chance to achieve many of his goals since moving to Canada.

Stephen G. Newman is an associate professor in the department of chemistry and biomolecular sciences, University of Ottawa.

Razgar Rahimi, who taught electrical engineering technology at Centennial College and was a sessional lecturer at Ontario Tech University

Curriculum development takes an enormous amount of effort to synthesize a body of knowledge into easily digestible lessons. Dr. Rahimi was a very quick learner who exceeded expectations and always met deadlines. Not only did he update our electrical engineering tech courses, he made them better!

We worked on a project to modify our courses by introducing low carbon building skills — an important objective that the federal government is funding to make our electrical engineering tech graduates more knowledgeable about environmentally sustainable practices.

Dr. Rahimi had a positive outlook and never complained about the tasks ahead. He always welcomed and helped students who came to his office, always generous with his time. Our electrical engineering technicians, technologists and apprentices are so much richer for knowing Razgar Rahimi.

Jorge Gruszka is a professor in the school of engineering technology and applied science at Centennial College.

Mohammad Amin Jebelli, master’s student at the University of Toronto

Jebelli had practised medicine and served as a medic in Iran, after graduating from the Tehran University of Medical Sciences with a doctorate in medicine. In 2018, he came to Toronto to pursue a master of health science in translational research.

This was a young man who was quiet, gentle, soft-spoken. He was bright and clever and asked good questions and was curious about the world.

Jebelli was due to graduate from the U of T program later this year, and was studying to do a qualification exam this March so he’d have the ability to practise in Canada as a doctor.

He also had an interest in entrepreneurship and in helping people in his home country of Iran, and contemplated pursuing a PhD.

Joseph Ferenbok is the translational research program director at the University of Toronto’s faculty of medicine.

Mojgan Daneshmand and husband Pedram Mousavi, professors of engineering at the University of Alberta

I’m by no means an expert in Mojgan’s research areas (I’m a computer engineer), but the two themes in her work were the design of novel microwave sensors for use in a wide variety of industrial and environmental applications, and the design of novel communications devices that operate at microwave and radio frequencies. Conventional cellphones (up to the LTE generation used today) use microwave frequencies; however, the next generation of cellphone technology (5G) will require the use of arrays of antennas that operate at both microwave and radio frequencies.

It’s clear to me that Mojgan’s research on novel microwave and radio frequencies devices would likely have contributed to the development of 5G technology in Canada, as well as to the training of students and junior researchers in key technical aspects of 5G.

Pedram’s research interests focused on what are called “wireless sensor networks,” where a multitude of physically distributed “intelligent” sensors use built-in flexibility (provided by flexible antenna designs and by programmable computers) to adapt to their local conditions, make useful measurements (for example, environmental measurements) and then communicate among themselves as a self-organizing network.

As an example application, such wireless sensor networks could be used to monitor the environment for, say, signs of pollution. They could also be used to provide communications capabilities in remote areas or in areas affected by natural disasters. Finally, such a network could allow autonomous vehicles to communicate among each other.

Pedram, who in his research was a communications engineer, also contributed valuable courses in management and in intellectual property that benefited the education of students in all four of the departments in the faculty of engineering … Pedram’s teaching benefited numerous students over the years, and he was undoubtedly contributing significantly to the establishment, growth and success of new companies in Alberta and across Canada.

The biggest loss is that both Pedram and Mojgan were delightful people, widely liked and respected by their colleagues and the students that they taught and mentored.

Bruce Cockburn is an associate professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering, University of Alberta.

Fareed Arasteh, PhD student at Carleton University

Fareed had a master’s degree in biotechnology from Iran. His dream was to enrol in a PhD program in the field of genetics. It took him two years to get into the molecular genetics lab at Carleton University in Ottawa and enrol in a PhD program. He was working on the identification and characterization of genes that affect quality control of the gene expression process using the model fungal organism, baker’s yeast. For genes to function, they need to be activated, or, as scientists like to call it, expressed. The quality of this expression is continuously regulated; mistakes in expression can lead to different conditions including cancer. For this research, the lab has secured more than $200,000 of public funding. It will take at least an additional year and a half to find and recruit another qualified graduate student to continue this work.

Ashkan Golshani is a professor of biology and biochemistry, Carleton University.

Nasim Rahmanifar, master’s student at the University of Alberta

Nasim Rahmanifar received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biomedical engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology in Iran.

She was admitted to a master’s program in mechanical engineering at the University of Alberta in 2019, and was offered to transfer to a PhD program in 2020.

Nasim’s research focused on in-field assessment of the risk of pressure injury and repetitive strain injury of the shoulder in wheelchair users.

Nasim’s academic performance throughout her studies in Iran and Canada was exceptional, with a full-mark GPA. She was a talented and hardworking student, and a dedicated and kind team member.

Hossein Rouhani, Rahmanifar’s supervisor, is an assistant professor in the department of mechanical engineering, University of Alberta.

Correction — Jan. 11, 2020: This article was corrected from a previous version which said Forough Khadem recieved a PhD from the University of Winnipeg. Dr. Khadem received a PhD from the University of Manitoba.

With files from Rosa Saba

May Warren is a breaking news reporter based in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @maywarren11

Isabel Teotonio is a Toronto-based reporter covering education. Follow her on Twitter: @Izzy74

Omar Mosleh is an Edmonton-based reporter covering inner-city issues, affordable housing and reconciliation for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @OmarMosleh