Siavash Shahshahani Information

Siavash Mirshams Shahshahani (born May 31, 1942, in Tehran) is a renowned Iranian mathematician and researcher. He is currently a retired professor at the Faculty of Mathematical Sciences at Sharif University of Technology. From the time Iran connected to the internet, he played a key role in registering the Persian **.ir** domain at the Institute for Theoretical Physics and Mathematics, resigning from this position in 2010. Shahshahani has made significant contributions to the development of the internet in Iran and is widely recognized for his research in dynamical systems. He also served as a mentor to Maryam Mirzakhani, the distinguished Iranian mathematician and Fields Medal winner.

 Life

Siavash Shahshahani was born in 1942 in Tehran. He completed his secondary education from 1954 to 1960 at Andisheh High School and Hadaf 1 High School. In 1960, he began his undergraduate studies in mathematics at Hope College in Michigan, USA, and continued at the University of California, Berkeley, starting in 1961. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1964 and immediately began his graduate studies at Berkeley. His doctoral dissertation, titled “Global Theory of Second-Order Ordinary Differential Equations on Manifolds,” supervised by Steve Smale, was completed in 1969, after which he received his PhD and taught at Berkeley for one year.

Subsequently, he served as an assistant professor at Northwestern University (1970-1971), the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1971-1973), and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1973-1974). In 1974, he returned to Iran and joined the faculty of Sharif University of Technology, attaining the rank of full professor in 1979. That year, he married Alheyeh Elahi, with whom he has two sons, Sepher and Sohrab. From 1985 to 1988, he served as the dean of the Faculty of Mathematical Sciences at Sharif, and from 1989 to 1994, he was the head of the mathematics section at the Institute for Theoretical Physics and Mathematics (now known as the Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences). Since 1988, he has been a member of the editorial board of the *Nesher-e Riyazi* journal and served as its managing editor from 1991 to 2005. He became deputy director of the Institute for Theoretical Physics and Mathematics in 1989 and played an active role in establishing Iran’s first internet connection. Since September 2003, he has been a member of the Language and Computer Group at the Academy of Persian Language and Literature.

 Honors

In 2003, Siavash Shahshahani was named a Permanent Mathematical Figure of Iran. On January 27, 2004, the Iranian Association for the Advancement of Science awarded him a certificate of appreciation for “establishing the first internet connection in Iran and efforts to register the .ir domain.” In 2023, he was honored as the recipient of the Iranian Mathematical Society Award.

 Works

Books

Authored

– *The Secrets of the Rubik’s Cube*, Nashr-e No, Tehran, 1982

– *Differential and Integral Calculus*, Fatemi, Tehran, 2007

– *An Introductory Course on Differentiable Manifolds*, Courier Dover Publications, 2016

Translated

– John Milnor, *Topology from the Differential Calculus Perspective*, Sharif University of Technology Press, Tehran, 1979

– (with Mohammad Jalodari-Mamaghani) Andre Weil, *Number Theory*, Kharazmi Publications, Tehran, 1990

Articles

English

– “Second order ordinary differential equations on differentiable manifolds”, *Global Analysis* (Proc. Sympos. Pure Math. Vol. XIV, Berkeley, Calif., 1968), Amer. Math. Soc., Providence, R.I., 1970, pp. 265–272

– “Symplectic structures on integral manifolds”, *Indiana Univ. Math. J.* 23 (1973/74), 209-211

– “Some examples of dynamical systems”, *Control Theory and Topics in Functional Analysis* (Internat. Sem., Internat. Center Theor. Phys., Trieste, 1974), Vol. Internat. Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, 1976, pp. 227-234

– “A new mathematical framework for the study of linkage and selection”, *Mem. Amer. Math. Soc.* 17 (1979), no. 211

– “Periodic solutions of polynomial first order differential equations”, *Nonlinear Anal.* 5 (1981), no. 2, 157-165

Persian

– «سیر تاریخی فلسفه ریاضیات», *فرهنگ و اندیشه ریاضی*, شماره اول (1986), 15–40

– «تصویرهایی از برکلی», *پیک ریاضی*, شماره 3 و 4 (1986), 151–170

– «خم‌های جبری», *نشر ریاضی*, سال 1, شماره 2 (1988), 85–96

– «سی و سه مسئله قدیمی از مجله مانتلی», *نشر ریاضی*, سال 2, شماره 3 (1989), 228–230

– «ریاضیات عمومی برای رشته ریاضی لازم است», *نشر ریاضی*, سال 3, شماره 3 (1990), 99–103

– «پدیده هشترودی تکرارشدنی نیست», *نشر ریاضی*, سال 4, شماره 1 و 2 (1991), 72–73

– «مجله‌های ریاضی جهان و کتابخانه‌های ریاضی ایران», *نشر ریاضی*, سال 4, شماره 3 (1992), 45–51

– «25 سال واقع‌گرایی: حماسه پیروزی لاک‌پشت», یادنامه بیست و پنج سال کنفرانس ریاضی, دانشگاه صنعتی شریف, 1994, 79–83

– «المپیاد، اعزام دانشجو، و فرار مغزها», *نشر ریاضی*, سال 8, شماره 1 (1996), 75–76

– (with Yahya Tabesh and Omidali Karamzadeh) «در دفاع از المپیاد», *نشر ریاضی*, سال 8, شماره 2 (1997), 2–3

– (with Ahmad Shafiei Dehabad) «زنده‌باد دترمینان!», *نشر ریاضی*, سال 8, شماره 2 (1997), 45–46

– «سیر و سفری در جهان اعداد» (نقد دو کتاب), *نشر ریاضی*, سال 9, شماره 2 (1998), 54–57

– «گزارشی از بحران مجله‌های پژوهشی ریاضی», *نشر ریاضی*, سال 10, شماره 1 (1999), 71–72

– «همینگ، روئل، و سیاره دوردست», *نشر ریاضی*, سال 11, شماره 1 (1999), 71–72

– «ریاضیات چیست?» (نقد کتاب), *نشر ریاضی*, سال 12, شماره 1 و 2 (2001), 68–70

– «درباره راهبری اینترنت», سومین نشست تخصصی-علمی برنامه‌های مشارکت ایران در دومین مرحله اجلاس جهانی سران درباره جامعه اطلاعاتی, 2004

Translations

– F.J. Almgren and H. Montgomery, «مدال‌های فیلدز سال ۱۹۷۴», *بولتن انجمن ریاضی ایران*, شماره 3 (1974), 38–52

– René Thom, «آیا ریاضیات نوین اشتباهی آموزشی و فلسفی است?», *بولتن انجمن ریاضی ایران*, شماره 5 (1976), 7–23