2016 AAAS Annual Meeting (February 11-15, 2016)

February 10 - 15, 2016

Iran: Science Cooperation in a Post-Sanctions Era

The July 2015 nuclear agreement between the world powers and Iran has created both a mechanism and an atmosphere for enhanced scientific cooperation between western and Iranian scientists. This symposium explores three ambitious efforts just getting underway in Iran in which the global scientific community could play a major role: the Iranian Light Source Facility, a synchrotron that will be Iran’s biggest basic science project ever; the Iranian National Observatory, a world-class 3.5 meter optical telescope on a mountaintop in central Iran; and the Iranian government’s plans to spend $6 billion over 10 years restoring Lake Urmia, a vanishing salt lake.