Iran gives Muslim scientist prize to Turkish-French, Iranian

TEHRAN - The Associated Press

Iran has awarded its biennial $500,000 Mustafa Prize to two computer science experts, an Iranian and a Turkish-French national.

The science and technology award, handed out for the second time, is given to Muslim researchers and scientists regardless of whether they live in Muslim-majority nations or elsewhere, as well as non-Muslim scientists in Muslim countries.

According to a statement, Iran's vice president in charge of scientific affairs, Sourena Sattari, said on Dec. 3 that the Turkish-French national, Sami Erol Gelenbe, and Iran's Mohammad Amin Shokrollahi, are being honored for their achievements in systems assessment in model-making and computer coding.

Along with medals and certificates, each winner gets $500,000.

Iran first handed out the prize in 2015 to a Taiwanese-Singaporean nanotechnology researcher Jackie Y.Ying and Jordanian-American chemistry professor Omar Yaghi.