Blessed is the song that people entrust to memory.

It is beautiful to keep one’s eyes on the sky while living so fully upon the earth.

It is astonishing to send the branches of the tree of life so far into the heavens while remaining so deeply rooted in the soil.

Firouz Naderi’s life was a beautiful song of curiosity, passion for learning, standing upon the highest peaks of scientific achievement, and at the same time a profound commitment to the world in which he lived.

Firouz Naderi could have lived without a bond to the earth. He could have been only a scientific name, but he was never indifferent, and he did not live indifferently.

At the age of thirty-two he was director of Iran’s Remote Sensing Center and, in Shahrivar 1357, announced that the centre was on the verge of establishing what he described as the world’s most advanced ground station for receiving satellite images to monitor Iran’s natural resources. Shortly afterward, like thousands of other young Iranians, he too was compelled to leave his country. Yet he lived in such a way that his life has inspired, and will continue to inspire, many young people from his homeland.

I have always believed that a good life is long enough. Yet there is sorrow in the irreversible departure of the wise when their story has not yet reached its end.

May the young people of this land lift his torch from the earth and not stop until they reach the horizon of his dreams.

His memory remains with us forever.

Aydin Areta