TEHRAN – Majid Ghayour Mobarhan, an Iranian professor at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, has won the State of Kuwait Prize for the Control of Cancer, Cardiovascular Diseases, and Diabetes in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

Administered by the World Health Organization (WHO), the prize acknowledges the work of well-known scientists who have made outstanding contributions to prevention, control, or research in one or more of the following disease groups: cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.

Mobarhan has received the prize for ‘Predicting Cardiovascular Disease in the MASHAD Cohort Study’, which is known as one of the leading health projects in Asia. Prediction of cardiovascular risk factors can help in early diagnosis, decision-making, and treatment of high-risk patients, the health ministry website reported.

He is also the founder of the International  United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Center for Health-Related Basic Sciences and Human Nutrition.

The prize consists of a bronze medal and a sum of money.  

Deputy Health Minister, Alireza Raeisi, received the prize on behalf of Mobarhan during the 72nd  session of the WHO Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean (RC72) held in Cairo, Egypt, from October 15 to 17. He missed the award ceremony due to a delay in visa issuance.

Davood Khalili, an epidemiologist and professor at the Center for Research on the Prevention of Metabolic Diseases at the Institute of Glandular Sciences at Shahid Bahshti University of Medical Sciences, Afshin Ostovar, a professor at Tehran University of Medical Science, and Fereydoun Azizi, the director of Iran’s Institute for Endocrine Sciences, won the prize in 2023, 2022, and 2007, respectively.

Iranian researchers in world’s top 2% list

The latest international data shows that the presence of Iranian researchers in the top two percent list of the world based on citation indicators continues to trend upward, indicating an improvement in the quality of the country’s scientific production.

The reputable “updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators”, which provides updated versions of scientist rankings based on standardized indicators, reported on September 19 that Iran has experienced an unprecedented growth in both one-year performance and scientific career-long indicators, IRNA quoted Peyman Salehi, deputy science minister, as saying.

Based on the report, the number of highly cited Iranian researchers in the one-year performance index has increased from 2,326 in the Iranian year 1403 (2024-2025) to 2,533 in 1404 (2025-2026).

This figure represents an increase of 207 persons compared to the previous year and clearly demonstrates the improvement in the quality and impact of the country’s scientific production in 2024, he explained.

Also, the number of highly cited Iranian researchers in the career-long index has grown significantly from 1,018 in 1403 to 1,021 in 1404. A five-year trend analysis shows that Iran has achieved this remarkable achievement from 433 in 1399, and has experienced nearly threefold growth in this time period, Salehi added.

“The career-long index refers to a researcher’s scientific performance over their entire career and includes the total number of citations received by the researcher’s articles through the end of 2024. This index evaluates metrics such as the number of citations, h-index, and the researcher’s contribution to collaborative articles.”

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Photo: Deputy Health Minister, Alireza Raeisi, received the prize on behalf of Mobarhan.