(London, 12 May) – An exceptional doctoral student at the UCL Centre for Doctoral Training Programme in Transformative Pharmaceutical Technologies is selected to receive the Mirzakhani Scholarship for the academic year 2024-2025. 

By combining her expertise in pharmacy and crystal engineering, Diba Keyhanfar is working on transforming drugs with unpleasant taste or odours into more flavourful forms, that are more appealing to children. Intersecting various aspects of chemistry and drug formation, Persia’s latest Mirzakhani scholar also sees it as a priority to make her work accessible to a global audience in order to incorporate her research into the pharmaceutical industry.

Influenced by Maryam Mirzakhani as a young student, Ms Keyhanfar has pursued her studies in both Iran and the UK in order to ‘achieve extraordinary things even during the toughest times’ as a means to overcome life’s obstacles. 

In addition to her outstanding academic research, Persia Mirzakhani’s independent selection panel welcomes Ms Keyhanfar’s commitment to training the younger generation in scientific research methods as part of her services to the Iranian community.

In 2017, Persia Educational Foundation established the Persia Mirzakhani Scholarship in remembrance of the first woman to win the prestigious Fields Medal in mathematics, the late Stanford Professor, Maryam Mirzakhani. Since then six outstanding Iranian women have been awarded this scholarship.  

The Mirzakhani scholarship is GBP 1500. Each year, an independent panel selects the recipient of the Persia Mirzakhani Scholarship from among eligible applicants. The results are announced around 3 May, marking the anniversary of the birth of the late Maryam Mirzakhani (12 May 1977 – 14 July 2017). The scholarship is designed to empower Iranian-descent women studying Sciences, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics at UK’s top research university, UCL.

Persia Educational Foundation is a non-governmental UK-registered charity. Its mission is to provide scholarships and educational opportunities to Iranian descent students in the UK and beyond. To support more students, please contribute to the Persia Mirzakhani Scholarship. Please note 100% of your donations benefit from our Gift Aid scheme and are awarded to support the eligible students at top UK universities. 

To find out more and arrange contributions towards the scholarship, please visit us at: https://www.persia.education/donate/ or email us at: info@persia.education.