Iranian Influential Women: Nasrin Moazami (1945-Present)

Nasrin Moazami is a biologist and pioneer in the field of biofuel technology. In 1995 she was awarded the French Academic Palms in recognition of her outstanding research, and was appointed a member of UNESCO’s International Basic Sciences Program (IBSP) in 2015.

Moazami was born in 1945, and in 1976 received her Ph.D. from the faculty of medicine of Laval University in Canada. She established in 1987 the best-equipped biotechnology lab in Iran, and in 1995 she founded the Persian Gulf Biotechnology Research Center on the Persian Gulf island of Qeshm, the first Iranian center for applied marine biotechnology.

For 15 years, she has worked with five engineering teams on a project in the southern province of Bushehr to turn microalgae into a new biofuel. Prior to that she was active in another project aimed at eradicating malaria-carrying mosquitos through biological agents instead of chemical pesticides which, among other problems, pollute water resources and introduce toxins into the human body.

To conduct her research, Moazami worked within a very traditional community on Qeshm Island. “I had no trouble obtaining authorization from the local government,” she wrote in a report for UNESCO. “But I also needed the support of the community to ensure that no potential mosquito breeding ground was neglected, including in the home. I approached the religious leader Molana Khatib with a request to present the malaria trial to the religious leaders from the villages the next time they gathered in Qeshm mosque. Coming from a woman, such a request would normally have been turned down, but Molana Khatib was so impressed with my arguments that he acquiesced. ‘You are a scientist, not a woman’, he reasoned.”

It was this experience which led her to her next project. “The special bond I formed with the Qeshm islanders during the malaria eradication trials led me to found the Persian Gulf Biotechnology Research Center on the island in 1997. The center develops plant propagation using the tissue culture of bananas, orchids and date palms to increase agricultural productivity. It also explores the qualities of coral for health applications. Coral is strikingly similar to bone, with a 98 percent degree of compatibility. This makes coral a potential substitute for bone transplants in patients, as there is no risk of rejection by the human body.”

Besides authoring four books in her area of expertise, Nasrin Moazami has published over 70 research papers in reputable international scientific journals.