Hamid Reza Katouzian

Katouzian was born on 23 October 1959 in Tehran. He enrolled for a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering at Amirkabir University of Technology in Tehran. After completion of his undergraduate and master's studies, he attended Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. He completed his Ph.D. in 1993 and continued his work as a postdoctoral researcher at Case Western until 1995 when he relocated to Iran. As of 2016 Katouzian is an associate professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, specializing in Biomechanics at Amirkabir University of Technology in Tehran.

Katouzian is married and has two sons.

As a pro-democracy advocate, Katouzian has continually defended freedom of speech and press. He was one of the major opponents and critics of president Ahmadinejad's policies and behaviours. He was the first politician who after the 2009 election publicly stated that Ahmadinejad does not have the competence, character, and quality to be the president of Iran and must be evicted and dismissed. He supported Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

Katouzian's emphasis and views on accountability, transparency, and human rights as major components of good governance, were not tolerable for high-rank authorities in Iran. He was elected as a member of the parliament in the 2004 election from his hometown Tehran as a conservative candidate after receiving 502,872 votes. He was later reelected in 2008 but did not seek re-election in 2012.