Mahmoud Hessaby
Professor of the University of Tehran, 1903, Tehran - September 3, 1992, University hospital of Geneva) was an important Iranian and Muslim scientist.
At the age of seven he moved to Beirut where he began attending school. At the age of seven he memorized the Qur'an by heart and later he started to read great books of Persian literature, which are regarded as very sophisticated. At the early age of seventeen he obtained his Bachelor's in Arts and Sciences from the American University of Beirut. Later he obtained his BA in civil engineering while working as a draftsman. After a short period of time he obtained a BA in Mathematics and Astronomy.
He continued his studies and as a graduate of the Engineering school of Beirut was admitted to the "École Superieure d'Electricité" and in 1925 graduated from this school at the same time he was hired by the French Electric Railway Co. He had a scientific mind and continued his research in Physics at the Sorbonne University and obtained his Ph.D in Physics from this University at the age of twenty-five.
He continued lecturing at University for three working generations, teaching seven generations of students and professors. He spoke five living languages: Persian, French, English, German and Arabic and he also knew Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, Pahlavi, Avestan, Turkish and Italian which he used for his etymological studies.
In the scientific field: twenty-five research papers, articles and books have been put to print by professor Hessaby. His theory of "Infinitely extended particles" is well-known among the world scientist. The medal of the commandeur de la legion d honneure, France's greatest scientific medal, was awarded to him for his theories. Professor Hessaby was the only Iranian student of professor Albert Einstein, he was known to be his favourite student, and during his years of scientific research he had meetings with well-known scientists such as Erwin Schrödinger, Max Born, Enrico Fermi, Paul Dirac, Aage Niels Bohr ....and scholars such as Russel and Andre-Gide.
During the congress of "60 years of physics in Iran" the services rendered by him were deeply appreciated and he was entitled "the father of physics in Iran".