Tajbakhsh Receives Professorship from Columbia

Kian Tajbakhsh

Columbia University appointed Kian Tajbakhsh, its alumni and the Iranian-American scholar freed on bail last week in Tehran, as a Visiting Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning.

President Lee Bollinger of Columbia announced the news during his introductory remarks before Iran's President Ahmadinejad took the podium to address the university’s students and faculty earlier this afternoon. Bollinger challenged Ahmadinejad to let Tajbakhsh leave the country to assume his professorship at the university.

Dr. Tajbakhsh holds a PhD degree in Urban Planning from Columbia. He was imprisoned last May on charges of inciting a velvet revolution in Iran.