09/05/2026
ANNOUNCING THE 2026-2027 PERSIA MIRZAKHANI SCHOLAR
Persia Educational Foundation is delighted to announce this year’s Persia Mirzakhani Scholarship Awardee: Parnian Fazel. Parnian is currently pursuing her graduate studies. She holds a BSc in Computer Engineering from the University of Tehran, where she graduated in the top 10 of her cohort, placing 7th among 120 students. She is now pursuing her MSc at Imperial College London, ranked 2nd in the world for computing by QS 2026. Her published research spans two Tier 1 AI conferences, and she received the Best Undergraduate Thesis award in her department. Parnian’s academic record is exceptional by any measure. She ranked in the top 0.4% of over 180,000 participants in Iran’s national university entrance examination.
Her commitment to the community is equally striking. Since May 2025, she has volunteered as a Technical Content Creator for Women in AI Research (WiAIR), translating complex AI research into accessible content and championing the visibility of women in the field — a cause she connects to personally as an Iranian woman in an underrepresented space. As an undergraduate, she served as Student Representative throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and spent three years as a Teaching Assistant across six courses, spanning Artificial Intelligence, Advanced Programming, and Compiler Design.
Parnian is navigating AI research through publications and is particularly interested in AI for social good, with a focus on building technologies that can create meaningful real-world impact and improve people’s lives. The Mirzakhani Scholarship provides significant support at a critical moment in her studies.
