The Rumi Forum presented “Islam, Science, Muslims, Technology” with Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Professor of Islamic Studies, the George Washington University.
Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr was born in 1933 in Tehran, Iran in a family of educators and scholars, his father having been one of the founders of the Persian educational system. Consequently, he received the best classical Persian and Islamic education during his early years in Tehran. He later came to the West to finish his secondary education at the Peddie School in New Jersey and after graduating as the valedictorian of his class, he went to MIT where he studied physics and mathematics and graduated with honors in 1954. Meanwhile, his interest turned to an ever greater degree to philosophy and the history of science and he transferred to Harvard University to pursue graduate studies first in the field of geology and geophysics in order to acquaint himself with a descriptive as well as a mathematical science, and finally in the field of the history of science and philosophy in which he received his doctorate from Harvard University in 1958 with specialization in Islamic cosmology and science. From 1958 until 1979, he was professor of the history of science and philosophy at Tehran University and for several years the dean of the Faculty of Letters and for sometime the vice chancellor of the University. He also served for several years as president of Aryamehr University in Iran. In 1962 and 1965 he was visiting professor at Harvard University and in 1964-65 the first Aga Khan professor of Islamic studies at the American University of Beirut. He was also the founder and first president of the Iranian Academy of Philosophy. In 1979 Dr. Nasr migrated to the United States where he became first the distinguished professor of Islamic studies at the University of Utah, then from 1979 to 1984 professor of Islamic studies at Temple University. Since 1984 he has been University Professor of Islamic studies at the George Washington University. Dr. Nasr has lectured widely throughout the United States, Western Europe, most of the Islamic world, India, Australia and Japan.
Moderator:
Dr. Sally Ann Baynard, has been an Adjunct Professor at Geogetown University’s graduate program in foreign service for over twenty years. She has a Ph.D. in Political Science from George Washington University and specializes in foreign policy, decision-making and the politics of the developing world.