Celebrating iranian women: The Mother of Modern Iranian Astronomy

Alenush Terian (1920-2011) was an Iranian-Armenian astronomer and physicist who has been called “The Mother of Modern Iranian Astronomy.” In 1947, Alenush graduated from the Faculty of Science at the University of Tehran and went to work in the physics laboratory of the university. A year later, she was elected the Head of Operations of the laboratory.

She signed up for a scholarship to further her studies in France but was not accepted because she was a woman. This did not deter her from going to Paris with her father’s financial support. She studied at the Faculty of Atmospheric Physics of the Sorbonne and obtained a PhD in 1956. Though she was offered a job there, she rejected it with the aim of bringing her services to Iran. She came back and became assistant professor of Thermodynamics at the Faculty of Physics in Tehran University. In 1964 she received the grade of full professor and became the first female Professor of Physics in Iran.

In 1966 she became a member of the Geophysics Committee of Tehran University. Soon, she was named elected Chief of the Solar Physics studies at the University and worked in the Solar Observatory of which she had been one of its founders. She retired in 1979.

She did not marry and devoted her entire life to her studies and students. As one former student said, “She always said that she had a daughter called Moon and a son called Sun.”
​
Alenoush Terian passed away in March of 2011. She left her home to the Armenian community and to those students who do not have a proper place to live.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Sources:

• Alenush Terian “Mother of Modern Iranian Astronomy”. The Other Iran. March 2014.
• "Iranian Personalities: Alenoush Terian." Iran Chamber Society. August 2018. 
• "Alenush Terian." Wikipedia. CC BY SA 3.0.
• "Birth of Alenoush Terian (November 9, 1920)." This Week in Armenian History. Nov 9, 2016.