A Star Among Stars: How Alnoosh Trian Changed Iran's Scientific World.
Alnoosh Terian, who went down in history as "the mother of modern Iranian astronomy", was born on November 9, 1920 in Tehran to an intelligent Armenian family. Her father, a director and translator, studied in Moscow, and her mother was educated in Switzerland and became one of the first women on the Iranian theater stage.
Alnoush, who grew up in an atmosphere of respect for education, asked her youth to destroy the stereotype that exact sciences are not accessible to women. Upon entering Tehran University, she became the only girl in the physics department among forty students. After graduating in 1947 with a bachelor's degree, Alanosh refused financially lucrative offers in the private sector and devoted herself to university laboratories.
Since she did not receive financial support from the state for studies abroad because of her gender, Terian showed an indomitable will: with the help of her family, she traveled to France and in 1956 defended her doctorate in atmospheric physics at the legendary Sorbonne. Despite the invitations to stay and work in Europe, Alanush returned to her homeland to pass on knowledge to new generations. In 1964 she became the first woman professor of astrophysics in the history of Iran. Trian played a key role in the creation of the country's first solar observatory at Tehran University's Institute of Geophysics and was at the forefront of teaching solar physics.
She never married and at the end of her life she said she had two children: "a daughter named the sun and a son named the moon". After working at the university for more than thirty years and training a galaxy of outstanding scientists, she retired in 1979. Alanush bequeathed her home to students, and spent the last years of her life in an orphanage in Tehran. After living 90 years and dying on March 4, 2011, Alnoosh Trian left behind not only the foundation of Iranian astrophysics, but also an immortal example of loyalty to science, personal courage and service to her native society.