Masoumeh Ebtekar is the current Vice President of Iran for Women and Family Affairs. She became the first female member in the cabinet of Iran and third in history, when she headed the Department of Environment in 1997. She is the highest ranking women in Tehran. From 2007 to 2013 she was appointed as the head of the Environment Protection Organization of Iran and became city councilwoman of Tehran. She introduced major structural and directional changes that enabled the reengineering of the government body.
She has also served as a faculty member at Tarbiat Modares University Tehran. Being a PHD in Immunology she became an Associate Professor in Immunology and presently teaches viral immunology, cytokines, aging HIV Vaccines and psychoneuroimmunology. She has filed at least 66 ISI scientific articles in the field. She is a member of several research board committees. She is also a reviewer for two international and four national immunology journals. In 2013 she became the President of 12th International Congress of Immunology. In 2019 she was promoted to full Professorship and was elected as Immunology and Allergy Association.
In 1991 Ebtekar co-founded the Institute for Women’s Studies and Research. Since 1992 Ebtekar has been the license holder and managing director of the Farzaneh Journal for Women’s Studies and Research. She was also appointed as the Head of Women’s NGO Coordinating Office and Vice Head of the National Committee to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.
In 2006 Ebtekar was named as one of the Champions of Earth by the United Nations Environment Program.
In the edition of The Muslim 500 in 2012, Ebtekar was named as one of the 500 most influential Muslims in the world.
She was awarded The Energy Globe Foundation Honorary Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. In 2014 she won the Italian Minerva Award for her scientific achievements. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Political Science by Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Korea.
