Azar Andami, an Iranian physician and bacteriologist, the only Iranian woman whose name is inscribed on the planet Venus, the inventor of the cholera vaccine, and one of the researchers at the Pasteur Institute of Iran. Due to her scientific and humanitarian services, a crater on the surface of the planet Venus has been named “Andami” after her.
Life
Ms. Azar Andami was born in 1926 in a neighborhood called Saghrisazan in Rasht. She was the fourth child and only daughter of the family. Dr. Andami graduated from high school in 1946. In 1947, she was employed by the Ministry of Culture and became a teacher. In 1950, while working, she obtained a diploma in natural sciences through an exam. In 1952, she passed the University of Tehran entrance exam and was accepted into the Faculty of Medicine. Finally, in 1958, she obtained her medical degree and immediately began her specialization in obstetrics and gynecology. After completing her specialization, she was transferred to the Ministry of Health at that time and eventually started working at the Pasteur Institute.
Activities
After a while, with the help of a scholarship from the Pasteur Institute, she went to Paris and obtained a certificate in bacteriology in 1967. In 1974, she succeeded in obtaining a specialist certificate in clinical laboratory sciences. She retired in 1978. She traveled to France and Belgium several times, and the result of these trips was scientific articles published in reputable journals. During her retirement, as she did not like to stay home, she went to Bahar Hospital and took over the management of the medical diagnostic laboratory there. After a while, she started treating women’s and obstetric diseases in her husband’s clinic on Hesam al-Saltaneh Street. In those years, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. One day, during an examination of a patient in the clinic, Dr. Andami lost her balance and fell on her, collapsing. On August 19, 1984, due to a pulmonary embolism caused by her severe illness, she passed away.
In 1992, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) named a crater with a diameter of 30 kilometers at a longitude of 26 degrees 55 minutes and a latitude of 17 degrees 45 minutes with a central peak in the south of the planet Venus after Andami. Azar Andami was the only Iranian woman whose name was sent to this council. Her daughter was the founder of this work. The municipality of Rasht named a boulevard in Golsar New Town after her. The boulevard has been named after her as the Delman Boulevard.
