List of Iranian Americans

This is a list of notable Iranian-Americans of all Iranian ethnic backgrounds, including both original immigrants who obtained American citizenship and their American descendants.

To be included in this list, the person must have a Wikipedia article showing they are Iranian American or must have references showing they are Iranian American and are notable.

Academia/science

• Alexander Abian, mathematician
• Sarkis Acopian, inventor, industrialist, environmentalist, and humanitarian
• Shahriar Afshar, physicist, namesake of Afshar experiment
• Siavash Alamouti, CTO Broad Band and INTEL fellow, inventor of Alamouti Code, code-communication engineer
• Abass Alavi, Professor of Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania^[1]
• Abbas Amanat, Professor of History & International Studies at Yale University
• Nima Arkani-Hamed, physicist from Harvard
• Abbas Ardehali, surgical director of UCLA's Heart and Lung Transplant program
• Shaul Bakhash, historian, expert in Iranian studies, George Mason University, Clarence J. Robinson Professor of History
• Mina Bissell, scientist and biologist, LBL
• George Bournoutian, professor, historian, and author
• Houchang Chehabi, historian, expert in Iranian studies, Boston University
• Hamid Dabashi, Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York City^[2]
• Richard Danielpour, Professor of Composition, Manhattan School of Music
• Touraj Daryaee, Iranologist
• Sibel Edmonds, former translator who worked as a contractor for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); founder of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC)
• Nader Engheta, Professor of Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania
• Haleh Esfandiari, Middle East Scholar
• Nariman Farvardin, Provost of University of Maryland
• Bobak Ferdowsi, Systems Engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory; served on the Cassini–Huygens and Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity mission
• Zoubin Ghahramani, Professor of Information Engineering at the University of Cambridge
• John Ghazvinian, author, historian and former journalist at University of Pennsylvania
• Doreen Granpeesheh, clinical psychologist and producer of the independent award-winning documentary Recovered: Journeys Through the Autism Spectrum and Back
• Vartan Gregorian, President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York
• Ali Hajimiri, inventor, technologist, and Thomas G. Myers Professor of Electrical Engineering, Caltech
• Babak Hassibi, Gordon M. Binder/AMGEN Professor of Electrical Engineering, Caltech
• Payam Heydari, Professor of Electrical Engineering, University of California, Irvine^[3]
• Hamid Jafarkhani, leading communication theorist University of California, Irvine^[4]
• Ramin Jahanbegloo, philosopher at University of Toronto
• Farnam Jahanian, computer scientist and the 10th president of Carnegie Mellon University
• Ali Javan, physicist, inventor of gas laser; Professor Emeritus of Physics at MIT
• Sepandar Kamvar, computer scientist, Stanford University
• Mehran Kardar, physicist, MIT^[5]
• Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, Founding Director of Center for Persian Studies, University of Maryland^[6]
• Homayoon Kazerooni, professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley;^[7] co-founder and Chief Scientist of Berkeley Bionics;^[8] inventor of the HULC
• Ali Khademhosseini, Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology and Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering^[9]
• G. A. Mansoori, professor of chemical engineering at University of Illinois at Chicago
• Bahram Mashhoon, general relativity physicist
• Robert Mehrabian, President of Carnegie Mellon
• Abbas Milani, Director of Iranian Studies Program, Stanford University
• Maryam Mirzakhani, Stanford University Professor; first female winner of the Fields Medal
• Jasmin Moghbeli, NASA astronaut candidate of the class of 2017
• Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design^[10]
• Hamid Mowlana, Director of the Division of International Communication at American University^[11]
• Firouz Naderi, NASA director of Mars project^[12]
• Majid M. Naini (مجید نایینی), computer scientist, former professor at University of Pennsylvania, Rumi scholar, writer, poet, translator, speaker^[13]
• Kayvan Najarian, Associate Professor of Computer Science, Virginia Commonwealth University
• Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University; prominent Islamic philosopher; author of many scholarly books and articles
• Vali Nasr, leading expert on the Middle East and Islamic world; best-selling author; influential commentator; Professor of International Politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University; Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy at Brookings Institution; columnist for Bloomberg View
• Camran Nezhat, Director, Stanford Endoscopy Center for Training & Technology
• Kaveh Pahlavan, Professor of Computer and Electrical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
• Gholam A. Peyman, inventor of LASIK eye surgery
• Nader Pourmand, professor of biomolecular engineering at the Baskin School of Engineering
• Majid Rafizadeh, political scientist scholar at Harvard University
• Behzad Razavi, Professor of Electrical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles
• Nouriel Roubini, one of the leading economists of our age; professor of economics at the Stern School of Business, New York University; chairman of RGE Monitor
• Pardis Sabeti, world-renowned computational geneticist, Associate Professor at Harvard University
• Omid Safi, Professor of Islamic studies at the University of North Carolina and advocate of reform within Islam
• Ahmad Salehi, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry,^[14] in Palo Alto, California
• David B. Samadi, vice Chairman of the Department of Urology and Chief of Robotics and Minimally Invasive Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai^[15]
• Homayoun Seraji, Senior Research Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory^[16]
• Ghavam Shahidi, IBM Fellow, Director of Silicon Technology
• Manuchehr Shahrokhi, professor, California State University;^[17] Founding Editor of Global Finance Journal; Executive Director of Global Finance Association^[18]
• Ray Takeyh, Middle East scholar and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations
• Kamran Talattof, Persian literature and Iranian culture; Director of Persian Program University of Arizona
• Vahid Tarokh, leading communication theorist at Harvard University^[19]
• Cumrun Vafa, string theorist at Harvard
• Saba Valadkhan, biomedical scientist, recipient of the Young Scientist Award
• Ehsan Yarshater, Hagop Kevorkian Professor Emeritus of Iranian Studies; Director of the Center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University;^[20] founder and Editor in Chief of Encyclopaedia Iranica
• Lotfi A. Zadeh, mathematician and computer scientist, and a professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley; father of fuzzy logic
• Norm Zada, founder of Perfect 10; son of Lotfi A. Zadeh
• Reza Zadeh, computer scientist at Stanford University
• Mark Zandi, economist and co-founder of Economy.com, now part of Moody's Analytics

Business/technology

• Vahe Aghabegians, entrepreneur
• Hamid Akhavan, CEO of Siemens Enterprise Communications^[33]
• Vahid Alaghband, founder and Chairman Balli Group PLC
• Anousheh Ansari, co-founder of Prodea systems, Inc.
• Sardar Biglari, CEO and founder of Biglari Holdings
• J. Darius Bikoff, CEO and founder of Energy Brands
• Shahram Dabiri, video game producer, lead producer of World of Warcraft
• Kamran Elahian, founder and Chairman Global Catalyst Partners
• Fardad Fateri, CEO of International Education Corporation
• Arash Ferdowsi, co-founder and CTO of Dropbox
• Nasir Gebelli, video game developer, programmer of Nintendo titles including Final Fantasy I, Final Fantasy II, Secret of Mana, and Rad Racer
• Vartan Gregorian, President of The Carnegie Corporation of New York^[34]
• Salar Kamangar, CEO of YouTube, VP of Google's web applications
• Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber
• Omid Kordestani, former Senior Vice President of Google
• Isaac Larian, CEO of MGA Entertainment, manufacturer of Bratz dolls
• Fariborz Maseeh, pioneer of MEMS; philanthropist
• Manny Mashouf, founder and Chairman of bebe stores
• David Merage, co-founder of Chef America Inc., manufacturer of Hot Pockets
• Paul Merage, co-founder of Chef America Inc., manufacturer of Hot Pockets
• Bob Miner, co-founder of Oracle Corporation and the producer of its relational database management system^[35]
• Ron Najafi, CEO of NovaBay Pharmaceuticals
• Izak Parviz Nazarian, business mogul and philanthropist
• Sam Nazarian, CEO of the SBE Entertaintment Group
• Younes Nazarian, businessman, investor and philanthropist
• Farzad Nazem, former CTO of Yahoo!
• Mehrdad Nikoonahad, founder & CEO, Nikoo Technology, Inc.
• Pierre Omidyar, founder of e-Bay (born to Iranian parents)
• Roozbeh Pournader, co-founder and co-developer of Persian Wikipedia
• Sean Rad, founder and CEO of Tinder
• Hooman Radfar, founder of AddThis
• Ali Rowghani, COO of Twitter
• Henry D. Sahakian, founder and owner of Uni-Mart
• Sina Tamaddon, Senior Vice President of Applications for Apple Computer^[36]
• Bobby Yazdani, founder and former CEO of Saba Software
• Shayan Zadeh, founder of Zoosk

 Music

• Pouyan Afkary, synthesizer musician, member of Scary Kids Scaring Kids
• Lily Afshar, classical guitarist
• Axiom of Choice, world music group
• Rostam Batmanglij, keyboard player of Vampire Weekend, music producer
• Leila Bela, avant-garde musician, actress, writer and former member of Pigface
• Cyrus Bolooki, drummer of New Found Glory
• Richard Danielpour, composer, Professor of Composition, Manhattan School of Music
• Vigen Derderian, singer
• Amir Derakh, guitarist of the band Dead by Sunrise
• Deep Dish, electronic music group
• Ramin Djawadi, composer
• Kayhan Kalhor, kamancheh player, composer and master of classical Kurdish and Persian music; two of his works were nominated for Grammy Awards in 2004
• Tara Kamangar, pianist and composer
• Anousheh Khalili, vocalist
• Bahador Kharazmi,^[37][38] singer/songwriter and producer
• Arsi Nami, music therapist, singer, songwriter, actor
• Lotfi Mansouri, opera director
• Tony Petrossian, music video director^[39][40]
• Ilya Salmanzadeh, music producer
• Ali Tabatabaee, one of the lead singers of Orange County, California-based pop-punk band Zebrahead
• Kourosh Zolani, composer, soloist and inventor; designed and plays the world's only playable Chromatic SantourSee also[edit]