Iranian official: Mustafa Prize effective in boosting collaboration between Muslim scientists
The Mustafa Prize, named after the revered Prophet of Islam and granted by Iran to top researchers and scientists from Islamic countries, has created a research and networking opportunities program among Muslims, the executive director of the scientific foundation says.
Ali Omrani told Iran’s ISNA news agency that the scientific award has had a remarkable role in cementing researchers and scientists from across the Muslim world who have turned down lucrative offers from Western countries and “stayed to focus on scientific development.”
He named Iranian nanoeletronic engineering researcher Mohammad Abdolahad, Iranian stem cell and developmental biologist Hossein Baharvand, Pakistani scientist Muhammad Iqbal Chaudhary, Lebanese researcher of transplantation immunobiology Professor Mohamed Sayegh, and Singaporean nanotechnology scientist Jackie Yi-Ru Ying as only a few Muslim scientific figures who have an eye on the scientific development within Islamic world away from the Western capitalism.
Omrani said, “The Mustafa Science Foundation is a soft infrastructure that introduces to society the people who stayed and were influential in the development of science.”
The Iranian official stated, “You cannot find big money in Islamic countries, but there are investment funds that can spark joint projects to solve the problems of Islamic countries.”
