Dr. Siavash Kurdistani maintained and developed a curiosity for science and discovery throughout his youth, despite the hardships he faced as a member of an oppressed minority during wartime.
Growing up in Iran during the 1979 revolution and the consequent eight-year war with Iraq, Kurdistani faced oppression as a Jew, forcing him to escape from the country illegally.
Only a teenager, Kurdistani faced many challenges on his road to America, including climbing mountains from Iran to Pakistan with little food, imprisonment and the shock of moving to a foreign country without speaking the language.
Kurdistani, a biological chemistry professor, was named chair of the Department of Biological Chemistry Wednesday following many years working as a professor and researcher in the department.
Kurdistani said he developed a passion for science at an early age. He conducted experiments in his own backyard with earthworms after an elementary school teacher told him they would react differently to spicy and sweet stimulants.
“Obviously, these weren’t well-controlled experiments, but they were interesting to me,” Kurdistani said. “The research enterprise is not as well developed in Iran, so I never really got exposure to science until high school.”
Kurdistani said one of his high school science teachers gave him research articles about biology, chemistry and physics. His teacher later introduced Kurdistani to a pathologist, who he worked with to process and examine tissues in the laboratory.
As a Jew, he was barred from leaving Iran due to the laws in place at the time. At the age of 17, Kurdistani was also eligible for the draft, which would limit his opportunities for education. So, he decided to migrate to Pakistan illegally by himself.
“My parents felt that there was no future for their kids in Iran,” Kurdistani said. “Because of the war with Iraq, the social structure of the country was deteriorating, making it difficult for everyone, and even more so, minorities.”
Kurdistani lost 15 pounds over 10 days on his trip across the mountains into Pakistan, where the police immediately captured him. Following his detainment, Kurdistani arrived at the United Nations office in Pakistan, where he applied for immigration to the U.S. Eventually, he was able to reach New York.
“Growing up in Iran, one of the U.S. shows that was popular at the time was Baywatch,” Kurdistani said. “I was expecting the ocean and palm trees, but instead ended up in New York.”
Although the trip from Iran to Pakistan was traumatic, Kurdistani said his initial experiences transitioning to the culture of New York came as a shock.
“Every day was a new life, and I had to adapt to a new lifestyle,” Kurdistani said.
After finishing high school in Brooklyn, Kurdistani left New York for Los Angeles, developing his love for science through higher studies.
Following two years at Santa Monica College, Kurdistani transferred to UCLA, where he sought research work in chemistry or biology. He worked for Donald J. Cram, a chemist and Nobel laureate, from 1991 to 1994 in a chemistry lab.
After obtaining his medical degree from Harvard from 1994 to 1999, Kurdistani returned to UCLA in 2004 as a professor to open his own lab to study chromatin.
His team of researchers is currently studying chromatin, a complex of proteins and DNA that forms the basic structure of the genome, to understand its role in cancer.
Kurdistani said he wants to continue studying chromatin and gene expression.
“The way he goes about his work, he doesn’t think about it as an obligation; it’s something he does, and he just loves it,” said Orly Minazad, Kurdistani’s wife.
Kurdistani said he plans to maintain the rigor of the department, to conduct cutting edge research and to make new discoveries, despite the cuts in research funding for science over the past 10 years.
“Working with Professor Kurdistani is challenging, but it’s very rewarding (because he) constantly comes up with connections to whatever you’re working on,” said Maria Vogelauer, a research assistant in Kurdistani’s lab. “He’s very practical, approachable and concerned with the well-being of all labs in the institute.”
Those who have worked with Kurdistani noted his passion for his work.
“His passion for science is unique,” said Vogelauer. “I have worked with many passionate people, but Professor Kurdistani is very driven by his profound curiosity about life.”
Meghan Hodges,
The title of the story, probably the fault of your editors–I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, succeeds in burying the lede. Professor Kurdistani, as you yourself wrote, fled due to oppression resulting from the anti-Semitism of the Islamic Republic of Iran, not due to “hardships” of “wartime.”
With an editorial slant such as that evidenced in the lede-burying headline by the Daily Bruin editors, it is no wonder that UCLA Jewish students are being made to feel uncomfortable on UCLA’s campus, such as evidenced by the boycott-Israel vote, and by the inquisition and singular litmus test of the Jewish student government candidate.
Good luck to UCLA, as the best and brightest of California’s Jews begin to follow the very familiar path chosen by Professor Kurdistani to escape both overt and subtle anti-Semitism in all its forms.
@mikey248, Meghan Hodges actually explained everything very accurately. You are the one that don’t like to see the reality and keep calling everything and everyone anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic! Many Iranians regardless of their faith faced sufferings and challenges during the Iraq-Iran war including the minorities. Jewish students aren’t being made uncomfortable at UCLA. It seems like some people like you want to ignore the reality that UCLA is a diverse place that have students with different backgrounds. Addressing the sufferings of one minority while ignoring others, and calling others anti-Semitic, and trying to hide behind this concept is very unfair and disrespectful! Fortunately, many educated and bright-minded people such as many students at UCLA (and other places) have realized this reality despite the pressures from inside and outside. Discrimination is never justified whether it’s done against a minority or done by a minority!
You’re just flat out wrong.
UCLA now has a national and embarrassing reputation for antisemitism. The Rachel Beyda incident demonstrated that antisemitism and opression against Jews in UCLA was common and openly practiced – not just by ordinary students – but by several members of student government. Most major news outlets (Including the NY Times, the Washington Post, and the Huffington post, reported – not only that incident – but the disturbing and growing trend of antisemitism on the UCLA campus.
Even before the Rachel Beyda incidents, several Jewish advocacy groups ranked UCLA among the top 10 most antisemitic universities in the country. UCLA is also one of the very few major universities in the country that voted in favor of boycotting Israel – a blatant double standard. This boycott hangs over UCLA with the same symbolic bigotry of a confederate flag.
Time to admit the obvious fact – UCLA has a major problem with antisemitism.
so tired of iranian jews making iran sound like the ghettos of warsaw. look i’m an iranian and a nonjew, an atheist in fact. i left iran at the time mr kurdistani left. there never was a law against iranian jews leaving iran. there was never ever ever such a law! however leaving illegally gave anyone doing so legitmacy when claiming refugee status when wanting to come to america or europe. you couldn’t just show up at the british embassy in tehran and say i want to emigrate to great britain, regardless of what your religion was. so this notion that iranian jews were being persecuted is unfounded. if they were so persecuted, why were they not exempt from military service? you think the third reich would have allowed jewish conscripts? you can’t have it both ways! jews left iran for the same reason non-jews left: there was the iran-iraq war, and very few economic opportunities. was iran a bastion of world jewry? absolutely not! but it’s disingenuous to presume that jews were actively persecuted. there are active synagogues and koshers butcheries in iran. i personally know of iranian jews living in the united states, who visit iran more often than i do.
As a fellow Iranian, I heartily congratulate Dr. Kurdistani on his recent appointment at UCLA. His knowledge, perseverance, and dedication to his work are admirable
and are fairly representative of many Iranian immigrants that I know in the U.S.
The narrative presented in his biography, however, is not something that was specific to Iranian Jewry, or any other ethnic or minority group in Iran. The obstacles described were extant and pervasive. All persons attempting to leave Iran at the time were equally discouraged and persecuted- and that, perhaps, may have been even more so for non minorities. My family and I can personally attest to this.
The hundreds and thousands of people whether Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Zoroastrian, or other who fled Iran after the revolution of 1979, did so because of social oppression, lack of freedom, the war, and political instability. It would not be fair to single out the difficulties of one group at the expense of the sufferings faced by others.
The story of Dr. Kurdistani’s journey would have been more impactful had it focused more on his accomplishments and less on any particular group that he self identifies with.