Sorooshian is dist. prof. and dir., Departments of Civil and Env. Eng. and Earth System Science, U. of California Irvine, USA. He is renowned for contributions to hydrometeorology and development/application of remote sensing for operational hydrology and water resources management. He is a member of the US Natl. Acad. of Eng. (NAE) and Intl. Acad. of Astronautics (IAA) and fellow of the American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); American Geophysical Union (AGU); American Meteorological Soc. (AMS); and Int. Water Resources Assoc. (IWRA). He serves on advisory committees, including NASA, NOAA, WMO and UNESCO. Recent honours include: Ven Te Chow Award, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) (2017); Robert E Horton Medalist, American Geophysical Union (AGU) (2013); American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Life Member Award (2013); Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Intl. Prize for Water Resources Management and Protection (2010); Honorary professorship, Beijing Normal University (2010); Walter Orr Roberts Lecturer in Interdisciplinary Sciences Award (AMS) (2009); UNESCO Great Manmade River Water Prize (2007); and NASA Dist. Public Service Medal (2005).

Jamshidi is LB Endowed chaired prof. of ECE and dir., ACE Lab., U. of Texas, San Antonio, regents prof. em., U. of New Mexico, Albuquerque and hon. prof., Birmingham U. (UK) 2012-2017. He was adv., NASA, and sr. res. adv., US Air Force Res. Lab and US DOE. Awards include: IEEE's Norbert Wiener Res. Award; Centennial Medal; CSS Dist. Member Awd., and IEEE-USA Sys Engr. Awd.; member, 5 honor societies; Best Res. Awd., Min. of Sci. and Higher Ed., Iran; Edison Natl. Res. Awd., Min. of Energy, Iran; Dist. Res. of the Year, UNM College of Eng.; and 3 hon. doctorates from u. in Azerbaijan, Canada and Greece. NASA Natl. service awd.. His membership includes: fellow of IEEE, ASME, NYAS, AAAS; assoc. fellow, AIAA; Hungarian Acad. of Eng.; Russian Acad. Nonlinear Sci.; U. of Texas System Chancellor’s Council (2011-). He has published 730 pieces of work including 68 books, some translated into Russian, Mandarin among others.

Mansouri obtained his PhD in physics and astronomy at the University of Vienna in 1972. He is professor of physics at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran. His previous positions include: chairman of the department of physics at Sharif University of Technology from 1983-85 and from 1991-93; and president of the Physics Society of Iran (1984-88, 1992-95 and 1999-2006). He is well known for his test theory of relativity which he developed in the 1970s with Roman Sexl at the University of Vienna. His theory constitutes a theoretical framework for testing the theories claiming to be an alternative to Einstein's theory of relativity. He has been awarded the Abdus Salam Prize for Iranian Scientists in 1989. He is a fellow of the Academy of Science, and associate fellow of the Academy for Irainian Litrature and Farsi Language Iran. He has been founding director of the Iranian National Observatory from 2007-20018. He has also served as deputy for research at the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology of Iran from 2001-2004. His social activities related to sustainable deveplemt in Iran is reflected in his collected works including seven titles published in 2022.