Persia Educational Foundation is delighted to announce this year’s Persia Mirzakhani Scholarship Awardee: Parnian Fazel. Parnian is currently pursuing her graduate studies. She holds a BSc in Computer Engineering from the University of Tehran, where she graduated in the top 10 of her cohort, placing 7th among 120 students. She is now pursuing her MSc at Imperial College London, ranked 2nd in the world for computing by QS 2026. Her published research spans two Tier 1 AI conferences, and she received the Best Undergraduate Thesis award in her department. Parnian’s academic record is exceptional by any measure. She ranked in the top 0.4% of over 180,000 participants in Iran’s national university entrance examination.

Her commitment to the community is equally striking. Since May 2025, she has volunteered as a Technical Content Creator for Women in AI Research (WiAIR), translating complex AI research into accessible content and championing the visibility of women in the field — a cause she connects to personally as an Iranian woman in an underrepresented space. As an undergraduate, she served as Student Representative throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and spent three years as a Teaching Assistant across six courses, spanning Artificial Intelligence, Advanced Programming, and Compiler Design.

“She continues to press forward with extraordinary resilience.”

— Mirzakhani Scholarship Selection Panel, 2026

Parnian is navigating AI research through publications and is particularly interested in AI for social good, with a focus on building technologies that can create meaningful real-world impact and improve people’s lives. The Mirzakhani Scholarship provides significant support at a critical moment in her studies.

Persia Educational Foundation Scholarship Ceremony

The Persia Educational Foundation hosted a vibrant evening celebrating Iranian-descent women in STEM, uniting mathematicians, musicians, previous awardees, and supporters at the Brunei Gallery in the heart of London’s academic district. The highlight was the announcement of Parnian Fazel as the 2026–2027 Persia Mirzakhani Scholar, honouring excellence and promise in STEM fields. The event also benefited from the presence and presentations by three of its previous awardees:

2018/19: Mahtab Farahbakhsh — Neuroscience & brain imaging, UCL

2020/21: Sara Javidnia — Genetics, ageing & molecular biology, UCL

2025/26: Sayeh Yousefi — Social psychology & persuasion, LSE

The event was beautified by traditional Persian setar music by Ala Zarei, an exceptional ethnomusicologist graduate of BIHE (Iran) and SOAS (UK) as well as a heartfelt keynote presentation by Professor Chehrzad “Cheri” Shakiban, a trailblazer in mathematics and a pioneering Iranian woman in the field.

Born in Tehran in 1951, she earned her PhD from Brown University in 1979 while pregnant and after fleeing Iran as a refugee. Professor Shakiban spent 37 years at the University of St. Thomas, Minnesota, where she became the first female full professor and first woman chair of the mathematics department. She was an inspiration and a mentor to the late Maryam Mirzakhani who invited her to speak at the University of Minnesota’s Institute for Mathematics and its Applications. In 2024, Heriot-Watt University awarded her an Honorary Doctorate of Science. She continues to serve on the Persia Mirzakhani Scholarship Selection Panel, guiding the next generation of scholars.

The ceremony was a powerful celebration of achievement, resilience, and inspiration for Iranian women in STEM.