April 14, 2024 | Harvard Club of Boston
The Harvard Iranian Gala is a black-tie evening that honors leading community members in various fields. Founded by a group of Harvard students of Persian heritage, the Gala strives to bring together leading professionals, artists, and academics who have dedicated themselves to furthering the study, understanding, and appreciation of Iranian culture, history, and society. The vision of the Gala is to mobilize and empower the next generation of leaders in the Iranian community.
The Iranian Gala @Harvard is presented by Harvard Undergraduate Iranian Association (HUIA) in partnership with Harvard alumni, faculty, and affiliates.
The Harvard Iranian Gala is a black-tie evening that honors leading community members in various fields. Founded by a group of Harvard students of Persian heritage, the Gala strives to bring together leading professionals, artists, and academics who have dedicated themselves to furthering the study, understanding, and appreciation of Iranian culture, history, and society. The vision of the Gala is to mobilize and empower the next generation of leaders in the Iranian community.
The Iranian Gala @Harvard is presented by Harvard Undergraduate Iranian Association (HUIA) in partnership with Harvard alumni, faculty, and affiliates.
2024 Welcoming Remarks
Christopher Stubbs
Harvard Dean of Science Christopher Stubbs joined Harvard in 2003 as a Professor of Physics and of Astronomy. His research interests lie at the intersection of cosmology, particle physics, and gravitation. Stubbs received an International Baccalaureate diploma from the Tehran International School in 1975, a BSc in physics from the University of Virginia in 1981, and a PhD in physics from the University of Washington in 1988. His research career started with experimental tests of gravitation, performing precision measurements to explore possible modifications to gravity. He was on the faculty at UCSB, and was then member of the University of Washington faculty for a decade before moving to Harvard in 2003. He served as chair of Harvard’s Physics Department from 2007 to 2010. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a recipient of the National Academy of Sciences Award for Initiative in Research, the NASA Achievement Medal, and is a co-recipient (with other members of the High-z Supernova Team who discovered the accelerating expansion of the Universe) of the Gruber Foundation Cosmology Prize and the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. Stubbs was awarded a McDonnell Centennial Fellowship, and a Packard Fellowship, and currently serves on the advisory panel for the Packard Foundation. He is an Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, in connection with his interest in arms control and technical aspects of international security issues. |
2024 Honorees
Goli Sheikholeslami
CEO Goli Sheikholeslami is the Chief Executive Officer of POLITICO Media Group, which includes POLITICO’s global footprint in North America and Europe. Sheikholeslami, who was named to the post in February 2022 by parent company Axel Springer, oversees all operations of the POLITICO Media Group. She is responsible for implementing an ambitious growth strategy designed to build upon POLITICO’s position as the global news and information leader on politics, policy and power. Previously, Sheikholeslami served as President and CEO of New York Public Radio and has vast experience in public and private media, including senior leadership roles at The Washington Post, Chicago Public Media, Condé Nast and Time Warner. She also served on the board at NPR from 2016 to 2019 and currently serves on the Board of Patreon, the membership platform for artists and creators. 
Rose Faghih - Next Generation Honoree
Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering Rose T. Faghih is an associate professor of Biomedical Engineering at the New York University (NYU) where she directs the Computational Medicine Laboratory (CML) within the NYU Langone Health's Tech4Health Institute. She received a bachelor’s degree (summa cum laude) in Electrical Engineering (Honors Program Citation) from the University of Maryland, and S.M. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She completed her postdoctoral training at the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT as well as the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Faghih is the recipient of various awards including a 2023 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Maximizing Investigators' Research Award for Early Stage Investigators, a 2020 National Science Foundation CAREER Award, a 2020 MIT Technology Review Innovator Under 35 award, and a 2016 IEEE-USA New Face of Engineering award. In 2020, she was featured by the IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine as a “Woman to Watch”. Dr. Faghih was selected by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine for the 2024 U.S.-Africa Frontiers Program. Moreover, she was selected by the U.S. National Academy of Engineering for the 2019 U.S. and the 2023 E.U.-U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Programs. In 2020, she was selected by the New York Academy of Sciences and Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development for the Interstellar Initiative. In 2022, she was recognized by the University of Maryland A. James Clark School of Engineering as an Early Career Distinguished Alumni. Dr. Faghih is on the editorial board of PNAS Nexus by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering. Moreover, she is a senior member of IEEE and currently an IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Administrative Committee Technical Representative. Dr. Faghih is the senior author of a Biomedical Engineering book titled Bayesian Filter Design for Computational Medicine published by Springer. Her research interests include wearable technologies, medical cyber-physical systems, and neural and biomedical signal processing. In addition to health engineering research, she enjoys poetry and published two original poetry books during her undergraduate years. |
Nima Arkani- Hamed
Physicist Nima Arkani-Hamed is an Iranian-American-Canadian theoretical physicist, with interests in high-energy physics, quantum field theory, string theory, cosmology and collider physics. Arkani-Hamed is a member of the permanent faculty at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He is also director of The Center for Future High Energy Physics (CFHEP) in Beijing, China . Arkani-Hamed graduated at the University of Toronto with a joint honours degree in mathematics and physics in 1993, and went to the University of California, Berkeley, for his graduate studies, where he worked under the supervision of Lawrence Hall. The majority of his graduate work was on studies of supersymmetry and flavor physics. His Ph.D. dissertation was titled "Supersymmetry and Hierarchies". He completed his Ph.D. in 1997 and went to SLAC at Stanford University for post-doctoral studies. During this time he worked with Savas Dimopoulos and developed the paradigm of large extra dimensions. In 2003 he won the Gribov Medal of the European Physical Society, and in the summer of 2005 while at Harvard he won the Phi Beta Kappa award for teaching excellence. In 2008, he won the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize given at Tel Aviv University to young scientists who have made outstanding and fundamental contributions in Physical Science. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009. He gave the Messenger lectures at Cornell University in 2010, and is currently an A. D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University. In 2012 he was an inaugural awardee of the Fundamental Physics Prize, the creation of physicist and internet entrepreneur, Yuri Milner. He was one of six physicists featured in the award-winning 2013 documentary film Particle Fever, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2017. |
Jasmin Moshirpur
Dean for New York City Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst and Queens
Dr. Jasmin Moshirpur is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Dean for Elmhurst/Queens Programs at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Chief Medical Officer for New York City Health + Hospitals/ Elmhurst and Queens. Dr. Moshirpur received her M.D. degree from the Shiraz University School of Medicine in Iran and immigrated to the US for residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Mount Sinai Medical Center. She completed a fellowship in GYN Endocrinology and is Board Certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology.
As Director of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Out-Patient Department at Elmhurst HospitalCenter, she pioneered an outstanding program for the community that rigorously emphasized preventive medicine including routine pap smears for detecting early cervical neoplasia, a cancer detection team that performed breast physical exams on all adult female hospital admissions when clinically feasible. This laid the foundation for a career passionately committed to improving and redefining women's health care and medical education and helping to establish the Cancer Center of Excellence at Queens Hospital Center. She was appointed as Director of the Department of Ob/Gyn in 1975 and held the position for 26 years.
Dr. Moshirpur's many honors include Arthritis Foundation’s Women in Motion 2023, Schneps’ Power Women of 2023, Glamour Woman of the Year 2020, Communications Healthcare Hero 2020, Transitional Services for New York 2016 Physician of the Year, The 2015 Jacobi Medallion, Outstanding Clinical Teacher of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Alpha Omega Alpha at Sinai, Torchbearers for Excellence in Health Care at Elmhurst Hospital Center, President of the Saul B. Gusberg Society, President of the Queens Gynecology Society, President of Shiraz University Alumni Association, and Chairman of the Board of the Iranian American Medical Association in the United States and is a member of the American Academy of Medical Directors.
Dean for New York City Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst and Queens
Dr. Jasmin Moshirpur is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Dean for Elmhurst/Queens Programs at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Chief Medical Officer for New York City Health + Hospitals/ Elmhurst and Queens. Dr. Moshirpur received her M.D. degree from the Shiraz University School of Medicine in Iran and immigrated to the US for residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Mount Sinai Medical Center. She completed a fellowship in GYN Endocrinology and is Board Certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology.
As Director of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Out-Patient Department at Elmhurst HospitalCenter, she pioneered an outstanding program for the community that rigorously emphasized preventive medicine including routine pap smears for detecting early cervical neoplasia, a cancer detection team that performed breast physical exams on all adult female hospital admissions when clinically feasible. This laid the foundation for a career passionately committed to improving and redefining women's health care and medical education and helping to establish the Cancer Center of Excellence at Queens Hospital Center. She was appointed as Director of the Department of Ob/Gyn in 1975 and held the position for 26 years.
Dr. Moshirpur's many honors include Arthritis Foundation’s Women in Motion 2023, Schneps’ Power Women of 2023, Glamour Woman of the Year 2020, Communications Healthcare Hero 2020, Transitional Services for New York 2016 Physician of the Year, The 2015 Jacobi Medallion, Outstanding Clinical Teacher of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Alpha Omega Alpha at Sinai, Torchbearers for Excellence in Health Care at Elmhurst Hospital Center, President of the Saul B. Gusberg Society, President of the Queens Gynecology Society, President of Shiraz University Alumni Association, and Chairman of the Board of the Iranian American Medical Association in the United States and is a member of the American Academy of Medical Directors.
2024 Musical Performer
Darya Dadvar
Darya Dadvar is a French-Iranian singer known for her stage presence and captivating performances. She has gained international recognition for her unique blend of classical Persian music with modern elements. Darya's music is often described as soulful and emotive. Her music gracefully showcases her vocal range and the richness of Persian music. The magical part of her art is that she can mix several languages and styles very gently in the same song, as if they were all from the same origin. "Her silky soprano is flexible as well as powerful, and she has a magnetic personality that helps set her music on fire." John Terauds, The Toronto Star |
