Kaveh Madani

Kaveh Madani (Persian: کاوه مدنی‎) is a scientist, activist, and former Iranian politician. He previously served as the Deputy Head of Iran's Department of Environment (also Iran's Deputy Vice President). He also served as the Vice President of the United Nations Environmental Assembly Bureau from 2017 to 2018.[1][2]

Kaveh Madani
Born1981 (age 38–39)
Tehran, Iran
Nationality Iranian
Alma materUniversity of California, Davis
Lund University
University of Tabriz
Known forFundamental contributions to integrating game theory and decision analysis into water management models Environmental activism and impacting water policy in Iran
AwardsNew Face of Civil Engineering (2012)

Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Young Scientists (2016) Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize (2017)

Hydrologic Sciences Early Career Award (2019)
Scientific career
InstitutionsYale University
Iran's Department of Environment
Imperial College London
University of Central Florida
Doctoral advisorJay R. Lund
WebsiteKavehMadani.com @KavehMadani

He is known for his work on integrating game theory and decision analysis into water resources management models.[3] His research and outreach activities have influenced water policy in Iran.[4] He also has played a major role in raising public awareness about Iran’s water and environmental problems in recent years.[5][4]

Known as "Iran’s expat eco-warrior",[6][7] he was considered as the "Symbol of Expatriate Return" to Iran during President Rouhani's administration.[8][9]

Life and Education

Kaveh Madani was born in 1981 in Tehran,[10] Iran to the parents working in the water sector.[11] He did primary education in Tehran and received his BSc in Civil Engineering from University of Tabriz.[12] He has a MSc in Water Resources from Lund University[13] in Sweden and a PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Davis.[14][15] He did his post-doctoral studies in Environmental Policy and Economics at the Water Science and Policy Center and the Department of Environmental Sciences of the University of California, Riverside.[15][16][17]

He is an Iranian citizen and has frequently denied the claims by the Iranian hardliners about having additional citizenships.[18][19][20][21]

Career

Kaveh Madani is a Henry Hart Rice Senior Fellow at Yale University and a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London. He was an assistant professor at the University of Central Florida before joining Imperial College in 2013.

In 2017, his name appeared in the media, including Shargh,[22] as one of the candidates[23] with strong support from the Iranian environmental NGOs and activists[24] to become Iran's Minister of Energy after Hamid Chitchian in Hassan Rouhani's second presidency term. Madani denied this news later in an interview[24] with the Mehr News Agency.

He was appointed by Issa Kalantari as the Deputy for International Affairs, Innovation and Socio-cultural Engagement of Iran's Department of Environment in 2017.[5] From 2017 to 2018, he served as the Deputy Vice President of Iran in his position as the Deputy Head of Iran's Department of Environment and the Chief of Iran's Department of Environment's International Affairs and Conventions Center.[25][26][27] He was interrogated many times during his tenure in Iran and was arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in February 2018.[28][29][30] In April 2018, he resigned[31] from his political post and revealed that he was kept under surveillance by the Iranian intelligence services and hardliners since his return to Iran.[32][33]

In Iran, he served as the Chair of the National Committee on International Climate Change Negotiations, Vice President of the National Committee of Sustainable Development, Member of the Supreme Council of Iran's House of Farmers, Member of Iran's Supreme Water Council, and Member of the Iran-Afghanistan Negotiations Workgroup on Water.[34][35] He led Iran's delegation in the 23rd United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP23)[36][37][38] and the 3rd Session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-3).[39]

He has received several awards for his research contributions, teaching innovations, and humanitarian activities such as the "New Faces of Civil Engineering" by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)[12], the Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Young Scientists by the European Geosciences Union (EGU) [40][41], the Walter L. Huber prize by ASCE, and the Hydrologic Sciences Early Career Award from the American Geophysical Union (AGU) .[12][34][35][42]

Campaigns on Waste and Plastic

By running a national campaign on waste, he tried to raise public awareness about waste and plastic pollution in Iran.[43][44] He was the initiator of the popular Bi-Zobaleh (No Waste) challenge, a social game that reminded both citizens and decision makers about their responsibilities on waste using the “Let’s Start with Ourselves” slogan.[45][46]

Bi-Zobaleh turned into a viral social media game in Iran with many celebrities, top politicians, influential figures, activists and the public from all walks of life joining the challenge from different parts of the country, sharing their solutions and actions on waste reduction in the environment.[46] The move created national sensitivity to the waste issue, which subsequently encouraged many public waste collection events around the country followed by plastic bottled water bans in some city councils, including major cities like Tabriz, Rasht and Isfahan.[43]

Among the Iranian public figures and celebrities who attended the Bi-Zobaleh Challenge are Mitra Hajjar, Pejman Jamshidi, Mohammad Javad Zarif, Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi, Shahindokht Molaverdi, Reza Sadeghi, Mohammad Rezs Aref, Mohammad Bathaei, Issa Kalantari, Reza Yazdani, Tayebeh Siavoshi, Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Ali Al-Hashem, Pantea Bahram, and Roya Nonahali.[47][48][49]

gollark: What if I go around kicking things with my shin, as is sometimes convention? WHAT THEN?
gollark: Please heal me at some point, as my... legs... hurt?
gollark: Can you heal the people you set on fire then?!!?!??!
gollark: I kick a nearby tree, d6.
gollark: Your general pyromaniac tendencies.

References
  1. "UNEA Chair and Bureau | Committee of Permanent Representatives". web.unep.org. Retrieved 2018-04-08.
  2. "Iran proposes regional center for SDS assessment". Tehran Times. 2017-12-09. Retrieved 2018-04-08.
  3. "EGU". European Geosciences Union (EGU). Retrieved 2017-02-24.
  4. "Can a 36-year-old Scientist Solve Iran's Water Crisis?". IranWire | خانه. Retrieved 2020-05-31.
  5. "Kaveh Madani appointed Iran's deputy environment chief". Tehran Times. 2017-09-18. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
  6. "Kaveh Madani, Iran's expat eco-warrior who was on too many fronts | Gareth Smyth". AW. Retrieved 2019-04-22.
  7. "An Iranian Patriot Vs. a Corrupt System". IranWire | خانه. Retrieved 2019-04-22.
  8. "Iran's deputy environment chief resigns amid mounting pressure from hard-liners". Al-Monitor. 2018-04-17. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
  9. Rupp, Kelsey (2018-05-26). "In Iran's water crisis, Tehran sows the seeds of its own decline". TheHill. Retrieved 2018-06-02.
  10. American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) (2012-02-22), Kaveh Madani 2012 New Face of Civil Engineering - Professional Edition, retrieved 2017-03-04
  11. TEDx Talks (2015-06-11), Water: Think Again | Kaveh Madani | TEDxKish, retrieved 2017-02-24
  12. "Remember This Face". UCF News - University of Central Florida Articles - Orlando, FL News. 2012-02-22. Retrieved 2017-02-24.
  13. "LU engineering alumnus Dr. Kaveh Madani at TEDx | FACULTY OF ENGINEERING LTH". www.lth.se. Archived from the original on 2017-02-25. Retrieved 2017-02-24.
  14. "Home - Dr Kaveh Madani". www.imperial.ac.uk. Retrieved 2017-02-24.
  15. "Remember This Face". UCF News - University of Central Florida Articles - Orlando, FL News. 2012-02-22. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
  16. American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) (2012-02-22), Kaveh Madani 2012 New Face of Civil Engineering - Professional Edition, retrieved 2018-04-18
  17. "Kaveh Madani". UCR Today. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
  18. "Iranian Hardliners Continue Attacks on Former Environmental Official Kaveh Madani". Center for Human Rights in Iran. 2018-04-26. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  19. Erdbrink, Thomas (2018-04-18). "Pressed by Hard-Liners, U.S.-Trained Environmentalist Quits Post in Iran". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  20. Madani, Kaveh (2019-11-14). "Why is Iran so paranoid about environmentalism?". Medium. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  21. "Iran's Environmentalists Are Caught Up in a Political Power Struggle". Human Rights Watch. 2018-10-18. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  22. PARHA-NP.V.5.1.1. "4 مرد حمایت چه کسانی را دارند؟". روزنامه شرق. Retrieved 2017-09-01.
  23. Behnegarsoft.com. "وزارت نیرو هم به وزیر جوان می رسد؟". پایگاه خبری الف. Retrieved 2017-09-01.
  24. ""کاوه مدنی" پیشنهاد مسئولیت وزارت نیرو را تکذیب کرد". خبرگزاری مهر | اخبار ایران و جهان | Mehr News Agency (in Persian). 2017-08-28. Retrieved 2017-09-01.
  25. "Greater than the sum of its parts: Deceiving assumptions and misleading policies in modelling and managing water". Water Institute. 2019-05-31. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  26. "کاوه مدنی سرپرست مرکز امور بین‌الملل و کنوانسیون‌های سازمان حفاظت محیط زیست شد". ana.ir (in Persian). Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  27. "ناصر مقدسی جایگزین کاوه مدنی در مرکز امور بین‌الملل سازمان محیط زیست شد". ایسنا (in Persian). 2018-04-17. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  28. "Kaveh Madani, Iran's expat eco-warrior who was on too many fronts | Gareth Smyth | AW". AW. Retrieved 2018-06-02.
  29. agencies, The New Arab &. "Iran launches wave of arrests against environmentalists". alaraby. Retrieved 2018-06-02.
  30. "In Iran, Environmentalists Are Now Seen as Spies". The New York Times. 2018-02-12. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-06-02.
  31. "Pressed by Hard-Liners, U.S.-Trained Environmentalist Quits Post in Iran". The New York Times. 2018-04-18. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-06-02.
  32. "An Iranian researcher went home to serve his country. Now, 'I realize that I'm lucky I'm not in prison.'". Science | AAAS. 2018-05-22. Retrieved 2018-06-02.
  33. Dehghan, Saeed Kamali (2018-04-18). "Top scientist leaves Iran after crackdown on environmentalists". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-06-02.
  34. "About Kaveh Madani | کاوه مدنی". Kaveh Madani. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  35. "Home - Dr Kaveh Madani". www.imperial.ac.uk. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  36. Madani, Kaveh (2019-11-14). "Politicians don't lead movements — people do". Medium. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  37. "Iran's statement (COP 23)" (PDF). UNFCCC.
  38. "On my way back to Tehran, I like to thank the Governments of Fiji & Germany ..." 2017-11-17. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  39. UNEA 3-Iran's National Statement by Dr. Kaveh Madani سومین مجمع محیط زیست ملل متحد-دکتر کاوه مدنی, retrieved 2020-01-08
  40. "PressTV-Iranian wins outstanding science award". Retrieved 2017-02-24.
  41. "Imperial senior lecturer elected as Outstanding Young Scientist in Geosciences". 2015-11-03. Retrieved 2017-02-24.
  42. "Kaveh Madani appointed Iran's deputy environment chief". Tehran Times. 2017-09-18. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  43. Bizar, Maysam (2018-04-19). "How an anti-waste challenge went viral in Iran". Al-Monitor. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  44. "DOE starting to promote 'waste separation' culture - Tehran Times". webcache.googleusercontent.com. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  45. "No waste: Want a change? start with yourself". Tehran Times. 2018-03-10. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  46. "Iran's DEO: No-Rubbish Campaign Successful". Financial Tribune. 2018-04-04. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  47. "چالش بی زباله چیست و کدام سیاسیون و افراد مشهور ایران در آن شرکت می‌کنند؟". پایگاه خبری جماران - امام خمینی - انقلاب اسلامی (in Persian). Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  48. "بی زباله (@bizobaleh) • Instagram photos and videos". www.instagram.com. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  49. "BiZobaleh (@BiZobaleh) | Twitter". twitter.com. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.