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Interview with Dr. Asraee in the ISNA news agency

Dr. Asadullah Asraee, a former faculty member at Sharif University, stated that employing the math students at the startups, the promotion of universities, and the pay more attention to geniuses is the best way to the preserve the mathematical elites in Iran.

He also added, one of the main problems is the strict rules of the universities in attracting the geniuses and not to invest in sciences and humanities disciplines. Therefore, one of the main reason for not having a finance expert in Iran is the tendency of top students toward majors such as electric. Hence, we have to provide facilities to attract student to other important majors to have better authorities in the future.
About employing the mathematics students in startups that can be active in the form of knowledge-based companies under the supervision of University, Dr. Asadullah Aseraee also indicated, “In successful startups, mathematical modeling is done”. The successful universities of Iran are those that students have the freedom to present their plans and the university supports their plan and invite industrial companies to buy their projects. The best way to solve the employment problems of mathematics students is to attend the startups.
He mentioned that one of the effective actions of government is the support of the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology from these startups. He also added that after developing startups, Vice Presidency for Science and Technology support them until the projects are done and a company starts to support it. However, the startups and universities should not wait for government supports and like developed countries, universities should be developed by their own power. Although it is possible to see failure in 6 out of 10 startups, each failure can open a new path to achieve success.
He believes that one of the key factors of important universities such as Stanford University is its support from startups and this university was the basis of companies such as HP and Nike. 
Dr. Aseraee mentioned the necessity of consulting the university officials with entrepreneurs to identify market needs for supporting startups and said: “Universities should ask entrepreneurs to set up workshops for students to familiarize students with the needs of the day and the related courses should be taught to students”. The main reason for the creation of mathematical finance was the fact that the world felt the need for such a discipline and created the field.
The strict rules of university avoid attracting the geniuses
  He regards that one of the mathematical problems in Iran is “strict rules” at the graduate level that the universities want more ISI paper, which leads to observing plagiarism in articles.  He said, “One of the problems of mathematics and other disciplines in Iran is that universities have overemphasized on the number of ISI articles; for example, some universities won’t allow the students to defend their doctoral dissertation if they do not have 8 ISI papers. In addition, when a person requests to be a faculty member, one of the main criteria is the number of articles without paying attention to his/her graduated university level. In abroad, if someone graduated from universities such as Oxford or Cambridge, when she/he wants to be employed as faculty member his/her ISI articles is not important than her/his graduated university. If late "Maryam Mirzakhani" came to Iran before becoming a professor, she would probably not be hired by Iranian universities because of the strict rules about the number of papers.
He mentioned, “When late Mirzakhani entered Harvard University, the comprehensive doctoral exam was being held, and they let her participate in the exam with BSc degree. She was accepted with an excellent score and she just started to write her thesis without passing extra credits. If she was in Iran, she had to pass 28 credits in M.Sc and 21 credits in Ph.D., and then the university would let her participate in the comprehensive doctoral exam. We had a similar case in Sharif University that the student had to pass credits to gain a master certificate.
He also added, “When Maryam Mirzakhani was a professor at Princeton University, Stanford University sent a letter to her that if she chooses to teach this university, they will hire her as a full professor, which university in Iran will do this?”
Dr. Aseraee described that one of the masterpieces of Mirzakhani was connecting pure mathematics to applied mathematics. He also stated that researchers should work on Mirzakhani’s masterpiece for 100 years. He called Mirzakahni as second Avicenna.
 Identifying and Leading talented student at Maryam Mirzakhani Foundation
A member of the Board of Trustees of Maryam Mirzakhani foundation described the foundation as a private one with the aim of identifying talented student and helping them at all academic levels and in all disciplines, especially mathematics.
He said about the Maryam Mirzakhani Foundation, “We are approving the legal procedures for registering this foundation. We gathered professionals to identify ways and tell us how to guide talented students toward their interest” 
He indicated that the control of the path that student passes it is of central importance. He also added that this foundation helps the student find the best discipline considering their scientific background and interviews.
Lack of good teachers in high schools
Dr. Average said that one of the most important problems was the lack of a good mathematics teacher in high schools. He added, “One of our suggestion for Payame Noor Universities was to avoid admitting mathematics and physics students in BS degree. They were asked to train mathematics and physics teachers by teaching source books such as “Tomas” and “Holiday”
He mentioned that Farhangian University was founded to train teacher; therefore it was good to change the method and this university should not apply the same methods. Also, the best professors should teach future teachers.
 The necessity of investment in guiding elite students to the field of science and humanities 
Dr. Average said that this university focused on basic courses and when the students want to pass exclusive courses they will not face any problems.
According to Dr. Aseraee, when the experienced professors teach basic subjects, even the issues that they want to put together in the two classes are different, so teaching basic courses is very important and should be taught by good professors.
He also added, one of the main reason for not having finance expert in Iran is the tendency of top students toward majors such as electric. Hence, we have to provide facilities to attract student to other important majors to have better authorities in the future.
Dr. Aseraee added, "If we have one of the best Ministry of Energy in the world because 100,000 geniuses of electricity and computers are monitoring the country’s electricity supply, which is one of the toughest power systems because our best students only choose electricity major.
Promotion of Universities is the key role of preserving mathematic geniuses in Iran
In response to a question about strategies to preserve mathematic geniuses in the country, he said, "A university like Harvard has a large number of foreign students. Although In Iran, the conditions for the entrance of foreign students to universities have been provided, no progress is observed”. Of course, it should be noted that in Iran's mathematics, could not be trained 100 Maryam Mirzakhani. In the USA also, an American wins Fields Medal once in 10 years. Therefore, we have to renew the rules for example when a foreign talented student is accepted in the University of Iran, we should not ask her/him about his/her credits and we should pay a good salary to him/her. Besides, we can provide good facilities for students that help them progress like universities in other foreign countries.
Dr. Aseraee mentioned that the existence of professors such as Maryam Mirzakhani and other prominent mathematics professors in reputable universities in the world shows the good status of Iran’s mathematics in the world. The international connection of Iranian Universities in the field of mathematics is good, but due to the currency problems, the connection is reduced.
He obtained a Bachelor of Science and a Master’s degree in mathematics from the Sharif University of Technology and earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He has 41 years of mathematical teaching experience and is currently studying for his third Ph.D. student. According to Dr. Aseraee, the student is studying mathematical control and he also teaches in some colleges.
Dr. Aseraee was a professor at the Faculty of Mathematical Sciences of Sharif University of Technology from 1974 to 1978 and was a faculty member at the University of Guilan from 1979 to 2018. He has 21 articles in the home and international journals, one of which is "Hot Paper". He is also the author of the book "A Geometric Approach in Nonlinear Control".