Latif Kashigar (1929–2025) was an Iranian geophysicist, researcher, scientific translator, lexicographer, and a leading figure in the development of Persian scientific terminology. An affiliated member of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature, he played a pioneering role in scientific publishing, physics education, and the standardization of Persian terminology in physics and Earth sciences. He was also the father of the renowned literary translator Mediā Kashigar.

Education
Kashigar earned his Ph.D. in Geophysics from the University of Strasbourg, France, in 1969. Following his return to Iran, he devoted his career to scientific translation, lexicography, education, and the development of Persian scientific language.

Activities and Works
Throughout his career, Kashigar worked extensively in scientific translation, lexicography, and terminology development. For nearly three decades, he served as an active member of several terminology committees of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature, including those specializing in Physics, Geophysics, Earth Sciences, Atmospheric Sciences, and the Council for Scientific Terminology Coordination. He was widely regarded as one of the principal architects of modern Persian scientific terminology in these disciplines.

His most significant contribution is the three-volume Dictionary of Physics (Farhang-e Fizik), a comprehensive reference work comprising 2,565 pages and more than 12,000 entries, completed after twelve years of research. Considered the most comprehensive Persian dictionary of physics, it includes English–Persian terminology, SI units, fundamental constants, mathematical formulas, electromagnetic radiation, radioactive nuclides, subatomic particles, biographies of Nobel Prize laureates in Physics, and a chronology of scientific history from 3500 BCE to 2015.

Kashigar also translated and authored several influential scientific works, including General Physics: Mechanics, Our Planet Earth, and The Story of Physics. His publications became valuable references for university students, researchers, educators, and general readers interested in the physical sciences.

Achievements and Awards
Latif Kashigar received the Iranian Book of the Year Award on three occasions for his outstanding scholarly contributions. These honors recognized his authorship of the Dictionary of Physics and his translations of General Physics: Mechanics and Our Planet Earth.

As an affiliated member of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature, he made lasting contributions to the enrichment of Persian scientific vocabulary. In a memorial message following his passing, the President of the Academy described him as the founding figure of Earth Sciences terminology within the Academy’s terminology program and praised his decades of service in strengthening Persian as a language of science.