Results: 'Empty Chairs' Across Canada's Academic Community After Iran Plane Crash

The devastating Ukrainian Airline plane (en route to Toronto from Tehran via Kiev) that crashed, taking the lives of 176 people (138 destined for Canada, 63 of those being Canadians), Wednesday morning, is being mourned by people everywhere, especially in Canada. But one of the most powerful images is the 'empty chairs' in academia across the country, as the crash killed professors and researchers from campuses across Canada, leaving a painful hole in Canadian academia where Iranians have taken on starring roles in engineering, science and other disciplines. Twenty universities in Canada have victims that died in this crash, some multiple students. Have you heard about the stories of any of the victims?

Hearing the stories of the victims reads like a list of the best and the brightest, and maybe a cure for cancer or the hopes for a sustainable future also died in that crash. Among the victims were mentors and leaders in their fields, students and school administrators, while others were researchers on hybrid electric vehicles, mechanical and computer engineering, and indigenous studies. Many of the victims were Iranian students hand-picked to attend graduate schools here in Canada, with the expectation that they will remain in this country after they graduate, the brightest students from engineering and medical schools in Iran. The crash not only took these 176 lives, it may also have robbed us of promising breakthroughs in many fields in science and engineering. Have you ever thought about tragedies in this light?

On a personal note, one of the victims, Forough Khadem, who graduated from the University of Manitoba in 2016 with a PhD in immunology. was a close friend of our family friend here in Toronto. My friend describes her as 'brilliant, with the kindest heart", and as a woman who was destined to do something great with her life. "She's somebody that would sacrifice her life for other people." The same year Khadem graduated from the U of M, she was featured as a CBC Manitoba Future 40 nominee, which celebrates leaders, builders and change-makers under the age of 40. She was lauded for her research in developing immunity to a deadly infectious disease (leishmaniasis), having successfully identified a novel drug target for treatment of the disease. Her findings were published in five journals, with one being highlighted on the cover page of a prestigious journal. If you have a personal connection to a tragedy like this , does it affect you more than if it's only a terrible news story?

News is surfacing that the plane was "accidentally" shot down just after take-off by an Iranian missile. Do you believe that this was an "accident"?