The selection committee and board members are pleased to announce the 2009 recipients of Scholarship and Merit Awards. Some of the criteria used to evaluate individuals were: (a) difficulty of the tasks, (b) length of time devoted to the community, and (c) their innovative ideas to help the Iranian community.

For scholarship, the recipient is Mr. Saeed Tasbihsazan. In the Merit category, the Awards go to Dr. Pirouz Mojtahed-Zadeh and Dr. Kaveh Farrokh. For those who follow our country's events, these individuals do not need any introduction. However, a brief bio of each will follow to give others a chance to get to know them.

The honorees will receive gifts to demonstrate our appreciation for their hard work and for their dedication to our community. With their efforts, we have been able to raise awareness in the international press about our rights and our heritage.

Please join us in congratulating these fine individuals and in wishing them well for many years to come.

Board members of Iran Heritage, Persian Gulf, and Iran Alliance
Mohammad Ala and Javad Fakharzadeh

Dr. Pirouz Mojtahed-Zadeh

Dr. Pirouz Mojtahed-Zadeh has been a professor of Political Geography and Geopolitics in Iran and aboard. He was born in Nour (Mazandaran - Iran) by the Caspian Sea in 1946 and is married with two daughters. He is internationally known for his major contribution to the studies of the issues of the Middle East and its two adjacent regions of the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea, as well as regularly contributing to international media on various subjects related to the security arrangements of these regions. He completed his Ph.D. in Political Gography at Oxford (1979) and London (1993) universities. He has ectured extensively in Europe, North America, Middle East and Far East. Dr. Mojtahed-Zadeh's publications in Persian includes 16 books, a large number of book chapters and encyclopedic pieces as well as ore than 400 articles and research papers published in reputable Persian journals at home and abroad.

Dr. Kaveh Farrokh

Dr. Farrokh obtained his undergraduate arts degree in May 1985 and his Ph.D. on September 24, 2001 from the University of British Columbia, where he specialized in the study of cognitive and linguistic processes of Persian speakers. As a result of his life experience, education, and studies of linguistics, Dr. Farrokh now speaks English, German, French, and Persian. He also has a working understanding of at
least three living languages, Provencal, Italian, Dutch, and Kurmanji Kurdish, as well as two ancient languages, Latin and Pahlavi. He has also lived in and traveled to several countries, including Germany, France, England, Belgium, Italy, Russia, and Iran. Dr. Farrokh has been recognized as an expert in the field of Iranian history and linguistics.

Mr. Saeed Tasbihsazan

Mr. Tasbihsazan was born in the city of Urmia to Mashhadi parents in Abaan 1356. He left Iran to work on his Engineering degree in Electronics Engineering at the University of South Australia. He started his professional life in IT immediately after leaving the university at the age of 21 and has been in the field ever since. Mr. Tasbihsazan's father has been a strong voice for Persian history and culture and was a major influence in shaping his childhood and existing world view and ideology. To date, he has sent several thousands of emails, notes, and web comments to various organizations throughout the world. Mr. Tasbihsazan has been successful in over 300 cases in eliminating incorrect names for the Persian Gulf from various websites, papers and news agencies.