Hawzah News Agency (Tehran, Iran) - A ceremony was held here in the Iranian capital to honor the winners of the second edition of the Mustafa Prize award. The prestigious award aims to honor the breakthroughs made by Muslim researchers in various fields of science and technology.
The ceremony, attended by senior Iranian officials, representatives of OIC countries along with over sixty prominent scholars and scientists from Islamic countries, was held ahead of the auspicious birthday anniversary of the Holy prophet (pbuh).
The winners of the second edition were Sami Erol Gelenbe, a Turkish-French computer scientist, and Professor M. Amin Shokrollahi, an Iranian professor of math and computer science.
The 2017 Mustafa (pbuh) prize was granted to the laureates: Prof. Gelenbe in the field of "information and communications technology (ICT)" for his pioneering research on “modeling and performance evaluation of computer systems” and Prof. Shokrollahi in the field of "information theory" in recognition of his outstanding work on "Communications: Raptor Codes."
Addressing the event, Mahdi Safarinia, Secretary of Mustafa (pbuh) Prize Policy-Making Council, congratulated Muslims on the birthday of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and welcomed the participating guests.
He said the mission of MSTF is to support and develop science and technology throughout the world. "The Mustafa (pbuh) Prize tries to be the focus of the world to the capacity of the Islamic world and improve the areas of international cooperation regarding science and technology," he stated.
“The Mustafa (pbuh) Prize is laying the foundation for restoring the Islamic Golden Age and benefitting and empowering other states,” he added.
He said more than 400 natural and legal persons have financed the Foundation in an effort to make the world’s biggest Islamic Fund in the development of science and technology.
Hassan Zohoor, the head of the 2017 Mustafa (pbuh) Prize Scientific Committee, in his speech said that the nominees were elected from among 700 Muslim scientists, 200 scientific institutes and organizations in the Islamic world.
The first round of Mustafa (pbuh) Prize was held in 2015 in Tehran and Professor Omar Yaghi from Jordan in the nanoscience and nanotechnology, and Professor Jackie Ying from Singapore in Bio-nanotechnology, were the recipients of this award.