Mother of Iranian astronomy: in commemoration of Alenoush Terian

The 100th birth anniversary of the late professor Alenoush Terian, the mother of Iranian astronomy, will be celebrated on October 29. Concurrent with World Science Day for Peace and Development, the ceremony will take place in Tehran.

Setting up the first solar physics observatory, launching the first solar telescope, Offering solar physics and astrophysics courses for the first time in the country, and dedicating her house to students are some of the most notable contributions of Terian to the growth of astronomy in Iran.

Iranian female astronomer Alenush Terian attends a ceremony held at the Ararat Club in Tehran on November 9, 2010, to celebrate her 90th birthday. She died on March 6, 2011. According to the Iranian Physics Association, the book “New Iranian Theater and the Terian Family” will be unveiled at the ceremony.

Born in a Christian family in 1920 in Tehran, Terian graduated from the University of Tehran in 1947. She began her career in the physics laboratories at the same university and was elected chief of laboratory operations in the same year.

She graduated in 1956 in atmospheric physics from Sorbonne University. She returned to Iran where she became an assistant professor in thermodynamics physics at the University of Tehran.

She studied at the solar physics observatory for 4 months through a scholarship from the German government and finally became the first female professor of physics in Iran in 1964. In 1966, she became a member of the geophysics committee of the University Tehran. In 1969, she was finally elected as the chief of the solar physics studies at the university. She began working in the solar observatory of which she was one of the founders. Terian retired in 1979.

In 2003, a film was made about her life entitled “Towards the Sun”, in which the life of this first lady professor of stellar physics at the University of Tehran is portrayed. She died on March 6, 2011, and her body was then laid to rest at the cemetery for Iranian Christians in Tehran.
Courtesy of Tehran Times