Waterloo, Guelph students among victims of Iran plane crash

Two students from the University of Waterloo and two from the University of Guelph are among those killed in Wednesday's aircraft crash near Tehran Wednesday. 

Three campus members from the University of Guelph were involved, the university said in a statement Wednesday.

• Milad Ghasemi Ariani was pursuing a PhD in the department of marketing and consumer studies.
• Ghanimat Azhdari, 36, was doing research in the department of geography, environment and geomatics at the University of Guelph. 

"We are deeply saddened to hear of the tragic loss of two of our students," said president Franco Vaccarino in a written statement. "Our thoughts go out to the families of these two students and to anyone else affected by this tragedy. Any loss to our campus community touches all of us."

Ghasemi Ariani had received an engineering degree and an MBA prior to pursuing his PhD in marketing at the University of Guelph. He is remembered by his departmental colleagues as a kind person and as a bright student with a promising future in academia.

"He was very friendly, he was easygoing," said Towhid Islam, a professor in the department of marketing and consumer studies at the University of Guelph.

"He had a very bright future."

Ghanimat Azhdari's research focused on identifying and mapping traditional territories of Iran's indigenous nomadic communities. 

The university said counselling and support is available for members of the campus community.

Waterloo students

Two graduate students from the University of Waterloo were also on the flight: 

• Marzieh (Mari) Foroutan, a PhD student of geography.
• Mansour Esnaashary Esfahani, a PhD student of civil engineering.

"Everyone at Waterloo is shocked and saddened to learn of the death of Mari Foroutan and Mansour Esfahani," said University of Waterloo president Feridun Hamdullahpur.

"Our hearts ache for them, their friends and family with whom we all mourn together. Mari and Mansour were part of a close-knit community of researchers here at Waterloo who will need our care and support. We are united with the Canadian academic community and all Canadian-Iranians in grieving the loss of Mari and Mansour and the loss of so many other students and researchers from across Canada. As we grieve, we will support the family, friends and co-workers of those who have died and keep them in our thoughts at this most difficult of times."

'Amazing, creative'

Shawn Marshall is a professor in the department of geography at the University of Calgary who recently published a paper with Foroutan, and remembers her as both a student and a friend.  

"Mari was … the most amazing, intellectual, sweet person that I know in so many ways," said Marshall.

"I knew she was capable of amazing, creative things and would have done amazing creative things. So it is a loss for Canada."

The Iranian Students Association of Waterloo (ISAW) has planned a vigil Wednesday evening.

There were 63 Canadians who died after a Ukraine International Airlines plane crashed near Tehran, killing all 176 passengers and crew Wednesday.

Airline officials said most of the passengers were en route to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.