Laleh Behjat is a professor in engineering at the

University of Calgary {{Infobox university , name = University of Calgary , image = University of Calgary coat of arms without motto scroll.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms , former ...

in Alberta, Canada.

Biography

Behjat completed a bachelor's degree in engineering at the

University of Tehran The University of Tehran (UT) or Tehran University (, ) is a public collegiate university in Iran, and the oldest and most prominent Iranian university located in Tehran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as ...

in 1996 and immigrated from

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

in 1997. She received her Master's degree in electrical engineering in 1999 and her PhD in 2002. In 2002 she was appointed a professor in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Calgary. Her research mainly focuses on developing various electronic design automation(EDA) techniques for physical design, large scale optimisation for EDA, as well as engineering education. Behjat is the

NSERC The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC; , CRSNG) is the major federal agency responsible for funding natural sciences and engineering research in Canada. NSERC directly funds university professors and students as ...

Chair for Women in Science and Engineering ( Prairies Region) where she works on developing inclusive culture in the

STEM Stem or STEM most commonly refers to: * Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant * Stem group * Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Stem or STEM can also refer to: Language and writing * Word stem, part of a word respon ...

fields. The Chairs for Women in Science and Engineering (CWSE) is NSERC's initiative responding to the need for diversity and inclusion within the STEM fields. In 2009, she and her colleagues received seed funding to find ways to promote engineering and science to females. Behjat aims to narrow the gender gap between female and male engineers.

Recognition

In 2015, Behjat received the

Women in Engineering Women are often under-represented in the academic and professional fields of engineering; however, many women have contributed to the diverse fields of engineering historically and currently. A number of organizations and programs have been creat ...

and

Geoscience Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four spheres ...

Award from APEGA in recognition of her work in the area of promoting gender diversity. She is a fellow of the

Canadian Academy of Engineering The Canadian Academy of Engineering () is a national academy of distinguished professional engineers in fields of engineering, who are elected on the basis of "their distinguished service and contribution to society, to the country and to the profes ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Behjat, Laleh Academic staff of the University of Calgary Iranian emigrants to Canada Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century Canadian engineers Canadian women engineers 21st-century Canadian women engineers Fellows of the Canadian Academy of Engineering