We have an Iranian scientist in our lab.

[NNadir]

Last edited Mon Mar 2, 2026, 01:16 PM - Edit history (1)

He's a fine scientist and a critical partner in our work. I consider him a friend.

(He despises the Iranian government just as much as I despise the orange ignorant pedophile, maybe more.)

He's not here today to work. I don't know where he is. I'm hoping he hasn't been picked up by the American answer to the Gestapo.

Update: I reached him. He's OK. He doesn't know the status of his family. He's OK..

I have a big sigh of relief. We're in the middle of something quite important.

[QueerDuck]

1. Sending good vibes... 🫂

[Lovie777]

2. I hope not............

maybe he's sick, and have called in.

These assholes don't care.

[Tanuki]

3. Please let us know when you know he's ok!

Hoping he's just staying home to monitor events in his home country.

[NNadir]

6. Thank you. I reached him. He's OK. Laying low I think

[Dawson Leery]

4. Or Mossad.

[fujiyamasan]

5. A lot of them may have been celebrating over the weekend

I’m sure many of them have mixed feelings. The story of the school getting killed is horrifying. The Ayatollah was clearly weak though and killing all those protestors over the last few weeks eroded what little support he had.

[electric_blue68]

7. I'm glad he's ok. I hope his family is also ok too.

Trump usually ='s chaos, injury, death and destruction.

[ProfessorGAC]

8. I Once Worked With An NMR Specialist From Iran

Wonderful guy. Really good at his specialty.
Since he worked 7 to 330, the NMR lab was empty, just in time to analyze my grad school samples.
No sharing of the instrument. And, since he taught me so much I did the work in half the time others would have needed.
Went to lunch with him a couple times a week.

[NNadir]

12. I once spent an afternoon with Freeman Dyson where naturally I asked...

...him about the TRIGA reactor which is generally attributed to him. It is said that Strangelove Teller asked him to design a reactor so safe that an incompetent graduate student couldn't make it fail. (It meets this criteria, hundreds of them operate in research institutions around the world.)

When I raised the point Dyson told me that he really didn't want to take credit for it, that the real star in the matter was Massoud Simnad, an Iranian born chemist who was a professor at UCSD. Dr. Simnad developed the uranium hydride fuel that expands in such a way as to remove reactivity from the core causing the reactor to shut down if the fuel gets too hot.

There is some irony in that I think, under the circumstances, that the world's most robust nuclear reactor owes its existence to an Iranian born scientist over a half of century ago.

OT: When I was a kid, I did most of my NMR work at UCSD, generally in the evenings. It was nothing fancy, straight up 1D proton stuff.

[gulliver]

9. If he is Iranian diaspora he might have the "brew flu"

Last edited Mon Mar 2, 2026, 04:00 PM - Edit history (1)

CNN was showing celebrations from Iranians all day yesterday.

I used to work with an Iranian American. Very smart, wise, funny. I'm actually a little bummed that, if Iran does find its way to becoming a secular, democratic republic, a bunch of really good people in the United States have said they would move back there.

[canetoad]

10. I'm glad you posted an update

It's reasonable to worry. How long before there are roving bands of federal thugs hunting down Iranians for internment camps?

[MustLoveBeagles]

11. Glad he's ok

I hope his family is too.