The Year of Astronomy: Iran & Armenia

The 3rd International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) will be held in Tehran, Iran, in August 2009. This year’s IOAA will coincide with the International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009).

The IOAA will be organized jointly by Iran’s Young Scholars Club and the Iranian Ministry of Education, and will consist of a 3-section competition in theory, laboratory, and observation. The IOAA is a competition for secondary school students.

Mehr Iranian news agency cited Mr. Mohsen Jamali, Director of Young Scholars Club, that around 150 students from about 30 countries are expected to participate in the event.

The 1st IOAA was held in Thailand in 2007, and the 2nd was in 2008 in Indonesia. Iranian students won two 1st places in Thailand Olympiad, and one 3rd place in Indonesia.

Mr. Jamali added that the main purpose of holding the competition is to increase and amplify interest in Astronomy and Astrophysics among the country’s secondary school students. Moreover, through participating in the event, students will have many opportunities to meet and befriend fellow students from around the world. This will lead to closer international cooperation in future research programs.

The Universe, Yours to Discover

This year has been proclaimed as the International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009) by the UN 62nd General Assembly. On 20 December 2007 the UN designated the UNESCO as the lead agency for the IYA2009.

The IYA2009 is a global celebration of Astronomy and its contributions to society and culture, highlighted by the 400th anniversary of the 1st use of an astronomical telescope by Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). Indeed, the UN resolution was submitted by Italy, Galilei's home country.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is due to function as the facilitating body, in conjunction with UNESCO.

According to an IAU press release, the IYA2009 aims to convey the excitement of personal discovery, the pleasure of sharing fundamental knowledge about the Universe and our place in it, and the merits of the scientific method. “Astronomy is an invaluable source of inspiration for humankind throughout all nations”.

So far 99 nations and 14 organizations have signed up to participate in the IYA2009 – an unprecedented network of committed communicators and educators in astronomy. As the President of IAU Ms. Catherine Cesarsky put it: "The International Year of Astronomy 2009 gives all nations a chance to participate in this ongoing exciting scientific and technological revolution."

The IYA2009 will highlight global cooperation for peaceful purposes – the search for our cosmic origin and our common heritage which connect all citizens of planet Earth. "For several millennia, astronomers have worked together across all boundaries including geographic, gender, age, culture and race, in line with the principles of the UN Charter. In that sense, Astronomy is a classic example of how science can contribute towards furthering international cooperation" the IAU statement said.

IYA2009 & Armenia

Armenia seems rather unprepared for the IYA2009. No special event has been planned or at least announced so far - unusual for a country that considers itself a leader in this field of science.

Aravot daily of 17 January 2009 (site in Armenian) reported that Mr. Samvel Haroutunian, Chairman of the State Committee on Science, has declared that his Committee has not received any proposals from the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, and that he doesn’t expect any such proposals.

Mr. Haroutunian told Aravot that Armenia has celebrated Astronomy in an extensive way in 2008. Referring to the programs commemorating the 100th anniversary of Victor Hambartsoumian’s birth, Haroutunian has added that “Armenia celebrated the Year of Astronomy a year in advance, and it will be justified if we don’t do much in 2009.”

The President of the National Academy of Sciences Mr. Radik Martirosian has, however, declared that certain events will surely take place. He has added that Armenia, as an IAU member, will take part in IYA2009. “There are some proposals under consideration. We’ll submit them to the State Committee on Science after we approve them.” In other words, the Academy seems to be simply very late.

For further information on the 3rd International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics in Iran, please click here.

For more information on the International Year of Astronomy 2009 please click here to visit the official IYA2009 website.

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Top Picture: Detail from Icarus by Henri Matisse, 1947.
Picture above: The official poster of IYA2009
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The Tomb of Cyrus II Restored

Unthinkable until a very recent past, the Iranian authorities have restored the tomb of Cyrus II. Cyrus II or Cyrus the Great was the first Emperor of Persia under the Achaemenid dynasty, and his tomb considered as one of the main symbols of Iran’s pre-Islamic power and glory.

The restoration of Cyrus tomb shows how much the Islamic Republic has evolved since its establishment 30 years ago. Immediately after the Revolution, certain radical elements within the regime called for the complete destruction of all pre-Islamic monuments and art. One mullah even had plans to send bulldozers to Persepolis. Fortunately, unlike what happened later in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, the Iranian authorities managed to control their destructive impulses.

The revival of Iranian nationalism during the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88, and later in the 1990s under the presidency of Mr. Khatami helped 'rehabilitate' the country’s pre-Islamic civilizations.

Meticulous Restoration

Located in Iran’s central province of Fars, the tomb of Cyrus is one of the main sites of Pasargadae historical complex, and is registered on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. (It was the Islamic Republic that applied for this classification).

The restoration work started in 2001. Mr. Hassan Rahsaz, director of the restoration team, told the Persian service of CHN, via Tehran Times, that each individual megalith from the tomb was documented.

“For the first time in Iran, epoxy resin has been used to fasten the new pieces of stone to the old ones. The resin, which transforms into stone after it cures, works like an extremely powerful glue.”

“To insulate the roof of the tomb, we have also used acrylic resin paraloid B72, a general-purpose thermoplastic acrylic resin, which was successfully tested during the recent rainfall.

“This restoration is an example of one of the best projects to be carried out on a stone monument. This is the first time in Iran that we actually have a certificate for each of the megaliths in the monument,” Mr. Rahsaz added.

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Pictures above: The tomb of Cyrus II as it is nowadays and in its original state, imagined by an artist.
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U.S. Science Official Detained in Tehran

Science Insider – 29 December 2008:

A member of a U.S. scientific delegation headed by the President of the Institute of Medicine was interrogated for 9 hours early in December 2008 in his Tehran hotel. The U.S. National Academies labeled the incident a “serious breach,” and declared that they “cannot sponsor or encourage American scientists to visit Iran unless there are clear assurances that the personal safety of visiting scientists will be guaranteed.”

IOM President Harvey Fineberg and the small delegation were visiting Iran to identify opportunities for cooperation in the medical sciences. They were accompanied by Glenn Schweitzer, director of Eurasian programs at the Academies, who has spearheaded an 8-year effort to nurture scientific ties with Iran in the absence of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

On 4 December, three men who claimed to be security officers detained Schweitzer in his room for 3 hours of questioning. Two days later, they returned for another 6-hour session. The men threatened to prevent Schweitzer from leaving Iran and told him that exchange visitors are not welcome. None of the other members of the delegation were questioned, and the men, who did not identify themselves, did not explain why Schweitzer was targeted.

“This really was a big surprise. It’s a risk we did not expect at all,” says William Colglazier, executive officer of the Academies’ National Research Council.

One Iranian scientist told Science that two Iranian scientific academies have delivered “official apologies” to Schweitzer, who was allowed to leave the country with the rest of the delegation on 7 December. But Colglazier says the Academies are still awaiting a formal response from the Iranian government.

It’s unclear whether the incident is the opening salvo of a concerted effort to derail scientific cooperation with the West. “There are various interest groups who are unhappy about people-to-people relations such as S&T exchanges. As a result, there will always be attempts to jeopardize these exchanges,” says Shapour Etemad of the National Research Institute for Science Policy in Tehran. Others say that the risk of incidents is especially high in the run-up to Iran’s presidential elections in June 2009. “Tension is seen as beneficial by many conservatives in Iran,” says one Iranian scholar. “Conservatives are mostly suspicious and some of them even dead-set against the opening of Iran towards the West.”

Schweitzer, who was traveling on a visa issued expressly for the meeting, says this was his first problem in 10 trips to Iran in the past decade. But it's soured him on future visits. “I hope this is more of a bump in the road rather than a derailment,” he says. “But I won’t go back. I’ll let others pick up the mantle.”
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