Hamid Behbahani ( fa, حمید بهبهانی, born 14 January 1941) is an

Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

academic and politician who served as minister of roads and transportation from 5 August 2008 to 1 February 2011 when he was

impeached Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements. In ...

by the

Parliament of Iran The Islamic Consultative Assembly ( fa, مجلس شورای اسلامی, Majles-e Showrā-ye Eslāmī), also called the Iranian Parliament, the Iranian Majles (Arabicised spelling Majlis) or ICA, is the national legislative body of Iran. The Pa ...

Early life and education

He holds a BS in civil engineering from

Iran University of Science and Technology Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST) ( fa, دانشگاه علم و صنعت ایران, ''Danushgah-e 'lâm vâ Sân't-e Iran'') is a research institution and university of engineering and science in Iran. The university is home to ...

and a M.S. and Ph.D. from the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

Career

Behbahani was the head of the civil engineering department at

. He was appointed by

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ( fa, محمود احمدی‌نژاد, Mahmūd Ahmadīnežād ), born Mahmoud Sabbaghian ( fa, محمود صباغیان, Mahmoud Sabbāghyān, 28 October 1956),

as an advisor for transportation affairs. He is also a member of high council of state for reform plan. After the resignation of Mohammad Rahmati from office as minister of transportation on 18 June 2008, Ahmadinejad assigned Behbahni as his candidate for the ministry to the Parliament. He received 181 out of 271 votes of the MPs and became minister of roads and transportation. He continued to serve in the same post in the second cabinet of Ahmadinejad after he was elected as president in 2009.

Impeachment

On 1 February 2011, 147 out of 234

Members of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

gave a vote of no confidence to Behbahani and

him for falsely claiming to hold a doctoral degree. He is the second minister to be impeached by the Parliament after

Ali Kordan Ali Kordan (23 October 1958 – 22 November 2009) was an Iranian conservative politician who served in the Revolutionary Guards, the judiciary and as deputy oil minister, before becoming interior minister of Iran in 2008 for just 90 days. He was ...

who was impeached in 2008.

Connection with Ahmadinejad

Behbahani was the supervisor of

Ahmadinejad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ( fa, محمود احمدی‌نژاد, Mahmūd Ahmadīnežād ), born Mahmoud Sabbaghian ( fa, محمود صباغیان, Mahmoud Sabbāghyān, 28 October 1956),

during his PhD studies at

where he was involved in a plagiarism scandal. In 2009, ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

s investigation suggested that the paper 'Providing a decreasing connection probability model for urban street network' (published in the journal ''Transport'' in 2006) co-authored by Hassan Ziari, Behbahani and a PhD candidate named Mohammed Khabiri, "contains large amounts of text from earlier articles by other researchers", considered

plagiarism Plagiarism is the fraudulent representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and thought ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Behbahani, Hamid 1935 births Living people Government ministers of Iran People involved in plagiarism controversies Iran University of Science and Technology faculty People who fabricated academic degrees Impeached Iranian officials removed from office