Thursday, January 28, 2010

Irianian Scientist Delegate to UNESCO's SESAME Assassinated

Source: "Killing of Professor Sparks Fight Over His Science and His Politics," Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, Science 22 January 2010: Vol. 327. no. 5964, p. 401, DOI: 10.1126/science.327.5964.401-a

Iranian physicist, Masoud Alimohammadi, a professor of theoretical physics at the University of Tehran, was picked to be Iran's representative for an international scientific facility being built in Jordan called SESAME, Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East.

Last week, Alimohammadi was assassinated by a remote-controlled motorcycle bomb outside of his apartment. And the country's guardians clutched him even tighter to their bosom. Iranian authorities characterized the killing as an attempt by U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies to rein in Iran's nuclear program.

SESAME is of course a UNESCO backed initiative.

No comments: