Posted Friday 13 July 2012

Yahya Tabesh receives his award from ICMI President Bill Barton at ICME-12 in Seoul, South Korea, 13 July 2012. WFNMC President Maria Falk de Losada (Colombia) is at left and Ali Rejali (Iran) is at right.

Yahya Tabesh was born on April 14th, 1950 in Tehran, Iran. He got a degree in Computer Engineering from Sharif (Arya Mehr) University of Technology, Tehran, in 1973 and graduated in Applied Mathematics from Syracuse University, USA, in 1977.

Yahya Tabesh has worked for Isfahan University of Technology (1977-1988) and Sharif University of Technology since 1988. He served as Chairman of the Department of Mathematical Sciences (1994 – 1998) and as a Director of Computing Center in the same institution since 1998.

Yahya Tabesh is strongly involved with competitions in Mathematics and Informatics. He was a co-organizer of the first Isfahan Mathematics Competition which paved the way for the Iranian Mathematics Olympiads and several other science Olympiads in Iran. He was the man behind designing and founding the mathematics houses in Iran. He was the co-author and editor of the first Iranian Mathematical Society expository Journal (Farhang and Andisheh Riazi). Yahya Tabesh has been involved in motivating many high school and university students to choose mathematics or computer sciences as their field of study. He was involved in the preparation of Iranian teams for IMO's for many years. He was the organizer or co-organizer of many Mathematics, Computer science and ICT workshops, seminars and at least three National Conferences in Iran. He was appointed by the Iranian Ministry of Education as Chairman of the Committee for 12th Grade Program Development (1993-1997) and Member of the Committee for Math and Computer Curriculum Development (1990-1998).

He was President of the Iranian Society for Popularization of Science (1998-2000), Member of the Iranian Mathematical Olympiad Committee (1987- present ), Deputy Leader of the Iranian Teams at IMO (1996-1999) and Leader of the Iranian Team at IMO (2000-2002). He was also leader of the Iranian Teams at IOI (International Olympiad in Informatics) during the period 1989 - 1991, Executive Director for West Asia Regional Contest (2003 - present), Director and Co-Founder of Iranian Schools Programming Contest (2007-present), Director and Co-Founder of Kangaroo Math Contest in Iran (2008-present).

Yahya Tabesh is the centre of a huge network of young Iranian scientists and engineers who were the beneficiaries of his vision and unfailing optimism in the work with higher ability school students.