Masoud Alimohammadi

Masoud Alimohammadi ( fa, مسعود علی‌محمدی; 24 August 1959 – 12 January 2010) was an Iranian quantum field theorist and elementary-particle physicist and a distinguished professor of elementary particle physics at the University of Tehran's Department of Physics. Alimohammadi was the first PhD graduate student in physics of the Sharif University of Technology. He published some 53 articles and letters in peer-reviewed academic journals and wrote and translated several physics textbooks, including '' Modern Quantum Mechanics'', revised edition, by J. J. Sakurai, which he translated from English into Persian in collaboration with Hamidreza Moshfegh.

On 12 January 2010 Alimohammadi was assassinated in front of his home in Tehran, while leaving for university. Majid Jamali Fashi was convicted of his killing and executed on 15 May 2012. According to ''Time'' magazine, Western intelligence confirmed that the confession of Majid Jamali Fashi was genuine. He stated that he had acted on the instructions of Mossad and had been trained in Tel Aviv.

Early life and education

Ali-Mohammadi was born on 25 August 1959 (although some sources give 23 March 1961). He entered Shiraz University in 1978 where he obtained his BSc in 1985. He subsequently moved to the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, to study for his MSc in physics. In 1988 he began with his PhD studies at this university as one of its first PhD students in physics. He obtained his PhD there in 1992.

Research and achievements

He was a quantum field theorist with interests in such diverse fields as condensed matter physics (quantum Hall effect in curved geometries), cosmology (modified gravity, dark energy, etc.) and string theory. Quantum field theory is a subject matter quite distinct from nuclear physics, nuclear engineering in general, and nuclear weapons and nuclear power. Iran's Atomic Energy Agency has in an official statement rejected media reports that Alimohammadi was associated with Iran's nuclear program. However, in an interview published in the Christian Science Monitor in July 2014, his widow Mansoureh Karami spoke of his "top secret nuclear work"."Covert war against Iran's nuclear scientists: a widow remembers"
''The Christian Science Monitor'', 17 July 2014. Retrieved 18 July 2014

Alimohammadi was a Council Member of International Centre for Synchrotron-Light for Experimental Science Applications in the Middle East. He was a professor at Tehran University's Physics faculty. Some sites claimed he was a professor at Imam Hossein University.DAWN.COM
but Iranian analyst Muhammad Sahimi writes "He was not affiliated with the IRGC-controlled universities, namely Malek-e Ashtar and Emam Hossein universities."

Political views

Ali Moghari, the director of the science department of Tehran University, described Mr. Ali Mohammadi as an "apolitical professor", saying "he was a well-known professor but was not politically active."

Ahmad Shirzad (reformist member of the sixth Iranian Parliament, professor of physics in Isfahan and Masoud Alimohammadi's close friend) writes: "In general his beliefs and actions were close to that of moderate Muslims. ... During the past couple of years he had ideologically become very close to the reformist movement. In the past few elections before the recent presidency election, he had voted for the reformist candidates and had been campaigning for them too." Shirzad adds that Alimohammadi told him how he and his students took part in 2009 Iranian election protests, 16 June.

It was claimed by Tehran University's Basij, or voluntary Islamist student militia, that his name was on a list of sanctioned individuals connected with Iranian nuclear program, but he was not on a compiled list. Mohammadi was among 240 university professors who signed a letter before the 2009 Presidential Election expressing support for the main opposition candidate, Mir Hossein Moussavi.

On reporting his burial, Al Jazeera reported on his lack of political involvement deepening the confusion over what motivation could have been behind the murder. They reported, "one of Ali Mohammadi's close friends (was quoted) as saying that the professor was never a political activist," and that, "... Mohammadi had very deep reformist tendencies but never mixed it up with his professional character." Ali Moghara, who heads the physics faculty at Tehran University, said Ali Mohammadi was just a "world famous" physicist who engaged in "no political activity".

Personal life

He was married to Mansoureh Karami ( fa, منصوره كرمی) before his assassination.

Assassination

On 12 January 2010, at 07:58 am, a motorbike rigged with explosives and parked near his car exploded while he was leaving home in Gheytariyeh neighbourhood of northern Tehran, for university. The windows of residences around the scientist's home were shattered by the force of remote controlled explosion, and it was reported that two other people were also injured in the blast.

Iranian state media accused Israel and the US of responsibility, while the US State Department called the allegation "absurd". Ynetnews stated that "there is no known connection between his participation" in the SESAME, an international synchrotron-radiation facility located in Jordan, and the assassination. According to US intelligence sources, Israel is running a secret war against Iran, among techniques used are the killing of important persons in the Iranian atomic energy program.

Another source found the assassination of "a 50-year-old researcher with no prominent political voice, no published work with military relevance and no declared links to Iran's nuclear program", as puzzling, although there were comparisons with the disappearance of Shahram Amiri in 2009 and the death of Ardeshir Hosseinpour in 2007.

On 25 January 2010, Iran summoned the Swiss ambassador to Iran, who is representing the interests of United States in Iran, demanding the extradition of individuals associated with U.S. based Tondar group, whom Iran believes are behind the bombing.

Funeral

On 14 January, Alimohammadi was buried. His burial was arranged at Emamzādeh Ali-Akbar Chizar in Tehran on Thursday 14 January 2010.

Timesonline described it as "Supporters of Iran's regime hijacked the funeral." As his body was carried from his home in northern Tehran hundreds of government loyalists surrounded it and were shown on Iranian state television waving Iranian flags and chanting anti-American and anti-Israeli slogans.

State investigation

Twenty-four-year-old Majid Jamali Fashi was arrested days after the killing, and in January 2011, Iranian state television aired a confession by Fashi to having killed Alimohammadi on behalf of Mossad. Fashi's arrest may have come as a result of a September 2009 WikiLeaks diplomatic cable from the US Embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan. The cable quoted an Iranian source who was a licensed martial arts coach who was in contact with the Americans. Fashi was reportedly in Baku to participate in an international martial arts competition days before the cable was written. On 28 August 2011, Fashi was convicted and sentenced to death by the Islamic Revolutionary Court. He was hanged on 15 May 2012 at Tehran's Evin Prison.

Media speculation

The BBC
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