Engineering Memory of the Month

Personal comfort amid global tension

The 444 days following November 4, 1979, the Iranian Hostage Crisis , were trying and tense for millions of Americans and Iranians. The period was doubly disquieting for many Iranian Americans, including Amaneh Tasooji (PhD 1982 MSE). But Tasooji remembers Stanford very fondly, especially because of the support and comfort she found during that time.

"The memory that I will never forget is about a great individual, Professor William Nix of the MSE department, who stopped me in the hallway the morning after the Americans were taken hostage in Iran," she recalls. "The short time he took in extending his support, asking me to inform him immediately of any retaliatory incidents that I might experience during that difficult time, had a tremendous impact on me and reinforced the values that the Stanford community endorses." Tasooji and Professor Nix are shown in the inset above at her graduation.

Times were certainly stressful. After the crisis erupted, for example, Tasooji found a note left by the FBI outside her apartment door asking for an interview. Tasooji had traveled to Paris to visit her sister that summer, and the FBI wanted to talk to Iranians who had traveled overseas. When she later met with the agent at her office, she found him wearing the classic trench coat and sunglasses, but also polite and apologetic. The scrutiny and implied suspicion Iranian Americans faced were also evident when Iranian students were finger-printed and photographed by the government. Meanwhile, as in the newspaper photo above, students gathered on campus to protest the escalating tension.

The U.S.-Iran relationship has made little progress in the intervening27 years, but Tasooji has certainly moved forward with a successful lifeand career. She joined the Aerospace industry after leaving Stanfordand had increasing level of technical and leadership responsibilities such as the director and General Manager of Engineering/Manufacturingcenter-of-excellence and head of the Materials and Process Engineeringdepartment at Honeywell Aerospace. Tasooji recently joined Arizona State University in order to follow her passion for education and leverage her knowledge and industry experience towards better preparing future engineering leaders for the challenges they will face in the new business and global economy.

Gather your memorable photos from your school days and take them to the scanner. Then e-mail them to David Orenstein , Manager, Communications and P.R.