'Ali Shariatmadari' (born
1924,
Shiraz, Iran) is an
Iranian academic and
educationist. He was President of the Iranian Academy of Sciences from 1990-1998. He is currently Professor of Education at the Teacher Training University in
Tehran.
He graduated with a BA in Law from
University of Tehran in 1951 and went on to complete his higher education in the United States, gaining an MA in Secondary School Education at the
University of Michigan in 1957. His PhD, awarded in 1959 by the
University of Tennessee, concerned philosophy of education and curriculum planning.
Whilst an academic at
Shiraz University, Shariatmadari spent four months in solitary confinement as a result of supporting a student demonstration against French actions in Algeria during a visit by the
Shah to the city.
With the advent of the
Islamic revolution in 1979, he was made Minister for Higher Education in
Mehdi Bazargan's
interim government. Subsequently, he was tasked, together with
Mustafa Moin,
Ahmad Ahmadi and
Abdolkarim Soroush, with training and vetting professors, selecting students, and Islamizing universities and their curricula.
Shariatmadari's numerous publications include works on educational philosophy, education and training in an Islamic context and the role of creativity in learning. He is a member of Iran's
High Council of the Cultural Revolution.
He is married, with one daughter.