CAMBRIDGE, MA—Abbas Maleki, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister (1988-1997), joins CIS as a Robert E. Wilhelm Fellow for the 2011-2012 academic year.

Maleki is associate professor of political science at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, director of the International Institute for Caspian Studies, and a senior associate of the Belfer Center's International Security Program at Harvard University.

Maleki served as Director General of PetroPar Institute, a research arm of the National Iranian Oil Company, from 1998-2000.

"Abbas is a thoughtful man who will offer much to CIS and the greater MIT community. An engineer by training with particular interests in energy, he will be working with students and faculty on related concerns. We look forward to his time with us," said John Tirman, Executive Director and a Principal Research Scientist at MIT's Center for International Studies.

A generous gift from Robert E. Wilhelm supports the Center's Wilhelm fellowship. The fellowship is awarded to individuals who have held senior positions in public life and is open, for example, to heads of non-profit agencies, senior officials at the State Department or other government agencies, including ambassadors, or senior officials from the UN or other multilateral agencies. Previous Wilhelm Fellows include: Naomi Chazan, the former Deputy Speaker of the Israeli Knesset, Ambassador Barbara Bodine, Ambassador Frances Deng, and Admiral William Fallon.