MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN

By Shahriar Afshar

I write today a life lesson for my son so he knows who he is and where he came from. 

When the President recently said, “Make Iran Great Again,” that made me think. Iran was great once and maybe now is the time it can be again. The Islamic Republic Regime is not Iran or the Iranian people. If you look past the Regime amidst all the (well deserved) negative media coverage, you will see a nation that was and can once again takes its place among the community of nations. You would not want to be held responsible for all the actions of your government and neither should the Iranian people.

Iran's true legacy spans over 2500 years, far beyond the blink of an eye that is the Islamic Republic from 1979 to today. Iranians have been shaping the civilized world for centuries with contributions to humanity: from the first charter of human rights to the birth of algebra, from the poetry of Hafez to the medicine of Avicenna.  By the way, I just want to take a moment to apologize to all the high schoolers about algebra but I promise, you will use it one day. 

Today, Iranian immigrants and Iranian-Americans continue that great legacy right here in the United States. From space exploration to cancer diagnostics, artificial intelligence to ethical science, they are quietly making America greater through the same spirit of discovery, wisdom, and resilience that once made Iran a global center of civilization.

Before America: The Legacy of Iran

Long before they helped shape modern America like every immigrant community, Iranians helped shape the world. For over 2,500 years, the Iranian civilization has stood at the crossroads of science, culture, mathematics, and philosophy. Iranian thinkers were among the earliest to fuse empirical study with ethical wisdom laying foundations that helped birth the modern scientific method.

Just a few of Iran’s pre-1979 historical contributions:

• Algebra & Algorithms – Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī, born in Persia, gave the West the term “algorithm” and was one of the fathers of algebra.
• Medicine & Anatomy – Avicenna (Ibn Sina) authored The Canon of Medicine, the most influential medical text in Europe and Asia for 600 years.
• Astronomy & Calendars – Omar Khayyam, mathematician and poet, developed a solar calendar more accurate than the Gregorian.
• Chemistry & Alchemy – Iranian scholars like Razi (Rhazes) pioneered chemical processes, hospital hygiene, and early clinical medicine.
• Ethics & Human Rights – The Cyrus Cylinder, dating to 539 BCE, is considered one of the earliest declarations of human rights.
• Literature & Philosophy – Thinkers like Hafez, Saadi, and Ferdowsi influenced Eastern and Western literature, cited by Goethe, Emerson, and Nietzsche.

Fast forward to 2025, what would the United States look like without Iranian immigrants?

Imagine our hospitals without PET scans. Imagine our phones without Wi-Fi. Imagine YouTube, Uber, and even the Mars Rover mission never taking off. The truth is, Iranian-American scientists, engineers, physicians, and entrepreneurs have reshaped the very core of American innovation. Many arrived as students or refugees. All built a legacy of brilliance, leadership, and discovery. Below is a tribute to 30+ trailblazing Iranian-Americans whose contributions, like many immigrants, continue to make America greater, smarter, healthier, and more advanced:

SCIENCE & MEDICINE

Dr. Shahriar Sadegh Afshar – Physicist & inventor of the Afshar Experiment; revolutionized photon imaging and quantum optics. (No relation to me unfortunately)

Pardis Sabeti (Harvard/Broad) – Developed genome tools that helped the U.S. contain Ebola, Zika & COVID-19.

Reza Shadmehr (Johns Hopkins) – Pioneered motor control robotics used in neurorehabilitation for stroke and Parkinson’s patients.

Morteza Mahmoudi (MSU) – Advanced nanotherapies for heart repair and led a national push for ethics reform in U.S. academia.

Saba Valadkhan (Case Western) – Discovered catalytic RNA in spliceosomes, opening doors for RNA-based medicine.

Abass Alavi (UPenn) – Invented FDG-PET imaging, now a mainstay in American hospitals for cancer and brain disease diagnosis.

Roxana Moslehi – Genetic epidemiologist shaping cancer prevention and screening policy.

M. Reza Ghadiri (Scripps) – Global leader in nanotechnology and molecular biology.

Pedram Hamrah – Transformed diagnostics in ophthalmology through corneal imaging.

Hossein Baharvand – Stem-cell biologist enabling international collaborations in regenerative medicine.

SPACE, PHYSICS & ENGINEERING

Firouz Naderi (NASA JPL) – Oversaw key Mars rover missions, expanding U.S. exploration of space.

Shouleh Nikzad (NASA/Caltech) – Designed next-gen imaging sensors used in space and Earth observation.

Parviz Moin (Stanford) – Expert in fluid dynamics powering aerospace design and climate modeling.

Ali Hajimiri (Caltech) – Innovated chip-scale photonics and mm-wave circuits used in satellites and sensors.

Ramin Golestanian – Nanorobotics researcher reshaping biosensor and soft matter physics.

ENGINEERING, AI & COMPUTER SCIENCE

Mona Jarrahi (UCLA) – Created terahertz scanners for early cancer detection.

Behzad Razavi (UCLA) – Wi-Fi and broadband pioneer; his circuit designs are core to digital communications.

Behnaam Aazhang (Rice) – Leading expert in wireless networks and information theory.

Zoubin Ghahramani (UC Berkeley / OpenAI) – AI innovator whose work powers machine learning used in speech, vision, and search.

Farinaz Koushanfar (UCSD) – Embedded AI and cybersecurity expert protecting everything from medical devices to drones.

Amin Shokrollahi – Invented Raptor codes used by Netflix, cloud storage platforms, and satellites.

Mostafa Ronaghi (Illumina) – Revolutionized gene sequencing; enabled personalized cancer diagnostics.

TECH ENTREPRENEURS

Pierre Omidyar – Founded eBay and sparked the online commerce revolution.

Dara Khosrowshahi – CEO of Uber; reshaped U.S. mobility and the gig economy.

Behdad Eghbali – Co-founder of Clearlake Capital; investor in dozens of American software companies.

Saeed Amidi – Founder of Plug & Play Tech Center; helped launch PayPal, Dropbox, and hundreds of American startups.

Salar Kamangar – Former CEO of YouTube and Google Ads pioneer; scaled platforms that now serve billions.

I can’t possibly capture the contributions of close to a million Iranian-Americans nor would I try. So if I left someone out, please add them to the comments section below. 

A Stronger Nation Because of Them

Without these immigrant visionaries, like so many other immigrant communities:

• The U.S. may be years behind in diagnosing cancer and brain disease.
• Mars rovers might still be on the drawing board.
• AI and broadband networks may be less capable.
• Millions of startups may not have found a launchpad.
• And our pandemic response would have been dangerously delayed.
• To name just a few WHAT IF scenarios...

They didn’t just join the American story, they helped write it. As a nation, we often talk about the American Dream. Iranian-American scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs didn’t just pursue that dream, they elevated it for everyone. Their stories are proof that when talent meets opportunity, innovation thrives.

Let’s continue to celebrate, and protect, the kind of country that makes these stories possible. America is a great nation from its founding because of immigrants and Iran is a great nation from its founding, over its illustrious 2500 years history, because of its people and not its current Regime. 

Peace.