UBC creates scholarship in memory of flight 752 victims

Jan 21 2020, 12:39 am

The University of British Columbia and the Iranian-Canadian community in Vancouver have raised money to create an Iranian Student Memorial Award in memory of those killed on Ukraine International Airlines flight 752.

The commercial plane was shot down by an Iranian missile just after takeoff in Tehran on January 8. Four members of UBC’s community were killed in the crash:

  • Mehran Abtahi, who joined UBC in October 2019 as a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of civil engineering.
  • Niloofar Razzaghi, who graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics in May 2010 and a Bachelor of Education in November 2018.
  • Zeynab Asadi Lari, who was enrolled at UBC in 2016 in the BSc program, with a major in biology.
  • Mohammadhossein Asadi Lari, who graduated with honours in 2018 with a BSc in cellular, anatomical and physiological sciences.

UBC provided the initial contribution of $50,000.

“Many members of the UBC community were deeply affected by this devastating event. On behalf of UBC, I would like to express our sympathy and condolences to the entire Iranian-Canadian community and particularly to the families and friends of those who lost their lives,” UBC’s president and vice-chancellor Santa Ono said in a statement.

Donations to the scholarship fund are being accepted online.

The UBC scholarship is one of several similar awards started at Canadian universities across the country following the plane crash. The University of Toronto has created one, so has Queen’s University, and the University of Alberta is looking at setting one up.

Megan DevlinMegan Devlin

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