What happened to Iran's top ranking university students 9 years ago
(Source: Facebook) This picture depicts the top ranking contestants, who outperformed millions of others in Iran's highly-competitive "university admission" exam in 2001. Some observers have traced these names after they graduated from Iranian universities, and found the following:
Neda Nategh (1st rank nationwide in Math/Physics, first picture on top row, from right): Ended up at Stanford
Ashkan Borna (2nd rank nationwide in Math/Physics, second picture on top row, from right): Ended up at University of Berkeley
Ehsan Shafiipour Fard (3rd rank nationwide in Math/Physics, Third picture on top row, from right): Ended up in Illinois
Mohammad Falahi Sichani (1st rank nationwide in Science/Biology, Fourth picture on top row, from right): Ended up in Michigan
Mohammad Amin Khalifeh Soltani (2nd rank nationwide in Science/Biology, Fifth picture on top row, from right): Unknown
Peyman Habibollahi (3rd rank nationwide in Science/Biology, Sixth picture on top row, from right): Ended up at Harvard
Mohammad Reza Jalayeepour (1st rank nationwide in Humanities, First picture on bottom row, from right); Ended up in Iran's notorious Evin prison as a political prisoner
Some on Facebook call this not only a brain drain but also a "genes" drain of the intellectual elite in Iran, either via immigration or through imprisonment and torture.
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