A message from dean Jean Andrey on the anniversary of Marzieh Foroutan's passing

Friday, January 8, 2021

Dear Colleagues,

The year 2020 saw many challenges, beginning with the downing of Flight PS752 and the death of all 176 lives onboard. On January 8th 2020 Flight PS752, scheduled to take passengers from Tehran to Kiev, was shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps three minutes after takeoff from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport.

Mari standing proudly in a hallway
Tragically, everyone on the flight perished, including the Faculty of Environment’s Marzieh (Mari) Foroutan, a doctoral student in Geography and Environmental Management and a member of the tight-knit Duguay Research Group.

As a way to remember Foroutan and further her important work, and through the support of hundreds of donors from across the world, the faculty established the Marzieh (Mari) Foroutan Memorial Graduate Scholarship. It’s mission: to support international PhD students who wish to study at the Faculty of Environment and walk in Marzieh’s big footsteps.

I encourage everyone to take a moment of silence at 11am on Friday January 8th to honour Foroutan, along with Mansour Esnaashary Esfahani, a PhD student in Civil Engineering. Neda Sadighi who studied Optometry Waterloo, alumnus Mojgan Daneshmand (PhD ’06), her husband Pedram Mousavibafrooei and their two daughters and all 176 passengers onboard who perished in the crash.

Please take care and be there for each other,

Jean Andrey
Dean, Faculty of Environment