Hamid Behbahani

Hamid Behbahani (Persian: حمید بهبهانی‎, born 7 August 1935) is an Iranian academic and politician who served as minister of roads and transportation from 2 August 2008 to 1 February 2011 when he was impeached by the Parliament of Iran.[1][2]

Hamid Behbahani
Minister of Roads and Transportation
In office 2 August 2008 – 1 February 2011
President	Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Preceded by	Mohammmad Rahmati
Succeeded by	Ali Nikzad (Acting)
Personal details
Born	7 August 1935 Shiraz, Iran

Early life and education

He holds a BS in civil engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology and a M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Florida.[3]

Career

Behbahani was the head of the civil engineering department at Iran University of Science and Technology.[3] He was appointed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as an advisor for transportation affairs. He is also a member of high council of state for reform plan. After the resignation of Mohammad Rahmati from office as minister of transportation on 18 June 2008, Ahmadinejad assigned Behbahni as his candidate for the ministry to the Parliament. He received 181 out of 271 votes of the MPs and became minister of roads and transportation. He continued to serve in the same post in the second cabinet of Ahmadinejad after he was elected as president in 2009.[3]

Impeachment

On 1 February 2011, 147 out of 234 Members of Parliament gave a vote of no confidence to Behbahani and impeached him for falsely claiming to hold a doctoral degree.[1][4] He is the second minister to be impeached by the Parliament after Ali Kordan who was impeached in 2008.[5]

Connection with Ahmadinejad

Behbahani was the supervisor of Ahmadinejad during his PhD studies at Iran University of Science and Technology where he was involved in a plagiarism scandal.[6] In 2009, Nature's investigation suggested that the paper 'Providing a decreasing connection probability model for urban street network' (published in the journal Transport in 2006) co-authored by Hassan Ziari, Behbahani and a PhD candidate named Mohammed Khabiri, "contains large amounts of text from earlier articles by other researchers", considered plagiarism.[7]

References

1. "Iran parliament dismisses transport minister". Reuters - via Khaleej Times. 1 February 2011. Retrieved 1 February 2011.
2. "Tehran welcomes ECO train". Tehran Times. 24 August 2009. Retrieved 3 September 2009.
3. Glenn, Louisa (1 September 2009). "Background brief: Ahmadinejad's cabinet". National Democratic Institute. Archived from the original on 8 July 2013. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
4. "Plagiarism scandal grows in Iran". Nature. 9 December 2009. doi:10.1038/462704a.
5. "Iran minister impeached over faked degree". CNN. 1 February 2011. Retrieved 4 November 2008.
6. "Plagiarism scandal grows in Iran". Nature. 9 December 2009. doi:10.1038/462704a.
7. Declan Butler (2009), "Iranian ministers in plagiarism row", Nature (461): 578–579, doi:10.1038/461578a