Over 170 Iranian students, professors killed in aggression

During a visit to the Aerospace Research Institute of Iran (IARI) on Wednesday, Simaei expressed hope that the academic community would continue the work of those lost in the attacks.

“The students and professors martyred during the illegal aggression have been identified,” Simaee said. “We hope that other members of Iran’s academia continue the work of the martyred students and professors.”

Simaee described the strikes as part of a broader campaign of "scientific crimes" by the US and the Israeli regime. He said the IARI, a facility focused on non-military research in fields such as biology, agriculture, and surveying, was specifically targeted twice despite its peaceful academic objectives.

“This is another of the scientific crimes committed by the sinister US-Israeli alliance. This is a place where researchers in civilian fields like biology, agriculture, and surveying worked, and unfortunately, it has fallen victim to the barbaric attacks of the enemy,” Simaee stated.

Simaee reflected on the loss of Dr. Saeed Shamghadri, an associate professor at Iran University of Science and Technology, who was martyred in the attack alongside his two children.

He described this loss as particularly tragic, underlining the personal cost of the aggression beyond the destruction of academic institutions.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Simaee provided details about the broader damage to Iran's educational and scientific infrastructure.

More than 20 state universities, as well as several research institutes, have been directly targeted by the attacks, resulting in both significant physical destruction and the loss of critical human resources.

Meanwhile, Dr. Bijan Ranjbar, the president of the Islamic Azad University, confirmed that 110 students from his institution have been martyred, and 21 university branches of his institution have sustained damage.

In addition, four faculty members and two employees, as well as two students from the SAMA schools, were martyred.

On April 6, Sharif University of Technology, one of Iran's most prestigious engineering universities known as the MIT of Iran, was struck. The High-Performance Computing (HPC) Center, which supports over 3,000 researchers in fields such as artificial intelligence (AI) and computer science, was severely damaged.

MNA